{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_27752/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_27752","id":"gutenberg_27752","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27752","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: History - Other","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Phallicism","Sex","Sex customs -- France -- History -- 17th century","Sociology"],"text":"Produced by Bryan Ness, Turgut Dincer and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This\nbook was produced from scanned images of public domain\nmaterial from the Google Print project.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n +----------------------------------------+\n | Transcriber's note: |\n | |\n | Old spellings and syntax in the French |\n | and English texts have not been |\n | corrected except the typos. The letter |\n | \"m\" with a macron have been replaced |\n | by \"mm\" as there is no unicode symbol |\n | or symbol combination to display this |\n | character satisfactorily. Footnote 224 |\n | is referenced twice. |\n +----------------------------------------+\n\n\n THREE ESSAYS ON THE POWERS\n OF REPRODUCTION.\n\n [Illustration: _Frontispiece._\n VOTIVE COLUMNS\n Of the Ancient Oscans.]\n\n Aphrodisiacs and Anti-Aphrodisiacs:\n\n THREE ESSAYS ON THE POWERS OF\n REPRODUCTION;\n\n WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE JUDICIAL \"CONGRESS\"\n AS PRACTISED IN FRANCE DURING THE\n SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.\n\n BY JOHN DAVENPORT.\n\n\n _Ubi stimulus, ibi fluxus._--HIPPOCRATES.\n\n\n LONDON:\n PRIVATELY PRINTED.\n 1869.\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe reproductive powers of Nature were regarded by the nations of remote\nantiquity with an awe and reverence so great, as to form an object of\nworship, under a symbol, of all others the most significant,--the\n_Phallus_; and thus was founded a religion, of which the traces exist to\nthis day, not in Asia only, but even in Europe itself.\n\nThat scarcely any notices of this worship should appear in modern works,\nexcept in the erudite pages of a few antiquarians may be accounted for\nby considering the difference of opinion between the ancients and the\nmoderns as to what constitutes--modesty; the former being unable to see\nany moral turpitude in actions they regarded was the designs of nature,\nwhile the latter, by their over-strained notions of delicacy, render\nthemselves, in some degree at least, obnoxious to the charge that, in\nproportion as manners becomes corrupt, language becomes more\nguarded,--modesty, when banished from the heart, taking refuge on the\nlips.\n\nTo supply, to some extent, this lacuna in our popular literature has\nbeen the object of the present work, in which, it is hoped, may be found\nmuch curious and interesting physiological information, interspersed\nwith _recherch\u00e9_ and festivous anecdotes.\n\nThe text is illustrated by a few plates, drawn from antiquarian sources.\n\nJ. D.\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\nNOTE.--_As it was found impossible always to insert the illustrations\nopposite the explanatory text, the following List will assist the reader\nto those pages which explain the objects represented_:--\n\n Plate Described on page\n\n FRONTISPIECE, INSCRIBED VOTIVE COLUMNS Facing title\n Of small size and of great antiquity; in use amongst\n the Oscan people, who were finally subjugated by\n the Sabines.\n\n I. _Figure_ 1, EGYPTIAN PHALLUS 1, 2, 3\n From \"Recueil d'Antiquit\u00e9s Egyptiennes, &c., par\n le Comte de Caylus.\"\n\n \" 2, DO., different view 1, 2, 3\n\n \" 3, Two views of a double figure 1, 2, 3\n\n \" 4, ROMAN PRIAPUS over a baker's door at Pompeii 11\n From \"Mus\u00e9e secret de Naples.\"\n\n II. _Figure_ 1, LINGHAM 1, 2, 3\n\n From M. Sonnerat's \"Voyage aux Indes Orientales.\"\n\n \" 2, PAN'S HEAD 9, 10\n\n From the Collection of Antiquities at Pompeii, _vide_\n \"Mus\u00e9e secret de Naples.\"\n\n III. _Figure_ 1, LEADEN PHALLUS 5\n From the \"Forgeais Collection of Plombs Historiques.\"\n\n \" 2, DITTO, a different view 5\n\n \" 3, DITTO ditto 5\n\n \" 4, DITTO ditto 5\n\n IV. _Figure_ 1, ROUND TOWER 5, 6, 7\n From O'Brien's \"History of the Round Towers of\n Ireland.\"\n\n \" 2, THREE-HEADED OSIRIS 7, 8, 9\n From the Comte de Caylus' \"Recueil d'Antiquit\u00e9s\n Egyptiennes,\" &c.\n\n V. _Figure_ 1, CROSS 12, 13, 14\n\n From Higgin's \"Anacalypsis.\"\n\n \" 2, Another example 12, 13, 14\n From the same work.\n\n \" 3, Another example 12, 13, 14\n From the same work.\n\n \" 4, Another example 12, 13, 14\n From the same work.\n\n VI. _Figure_ 1, EX VOTO, in silver 18, 19, 20\n From the British Museum copy of R. Payne Knight's\n \"History of the Worship of Priapus.\"\n\n \" 2, DUDA\u00cfM or MANDRAKE 67, 70, 71, 74\n\n From Dr. Kitto's \"Cyclop\u00e6dia of Biblical Literature.\"\n\n VII. _Figure_ 1, FIBULA 142, 3\n From Holyday's \"Juvenal.\"\n\n \" 2, Another example of a different construction 142, 3\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS.\n\n\n ESSAY I.\n\n\n Page\n ANCIENT PHALLIC WORSHIP:\n\n Phallic Worship the most ancient and general 1-2\n\n Phallic Worship found to exist in America 2\n\n Indian Trimourti or Trinity 3\n\n Lingham 3\n\n Yoni or Cteis, and Pulleiar 4\n\n Taly, Anecdote of the 4\n\n Leaden Phalli found in the river Rh\u00f4ne 5\n\n Round Towers in Ireland--Phallic temples 6\n\n The May-Pole a relic of phallic worship 6\n\n Phallus held in reverence by the Jews--King David 6\n\n Le prerogativi de' Testicoli (note) 6\n\n An Egyptian Phallic Oath 8\n\n Ancient Welsh Phallic Law 8\n\n London Costermongers' Oath \"By my taters\" 9\n\n Bembo (Cardinal), his saying (note) 10\n\n Priapus, derivation of the word 10\n\n Priapus, how reverenced by Roman women 10\n\n Priapus, decline of his worship 11\n\n The Cross [Symbol: Tau] known to the Buddhists and the Lama\n of Thibet 12\n\n Cross (the) regarded by the Ancients as the emblem of fruitfulness 12\n\n Rev. Mr. Maurice quoted 12\n\n The Tau, Crux-Ansata, or triple Phallus 14\n\n Remains of Phallic Worship in Europe 14\n\n Lampsacus, the Birth-place of the deity Priapus (note) 14\n\n Saint Foutin 14\n\n The Phallus of Foutin at Embrun--the holy vinegar 16\n\n Curious Phallic Customs 16-17\n\n Godfrey de Bouillon and the Holy prepuce 18\n\n Il santo-membro 18\n\n Sir W. Hamilton's account of the Worship paid to Saints Cosmo\n and Damianus 18\n\n _Ex votos_ 18\n\n\n ESSAY II.\n\n ANAPHRODISIA, OR ABSENCE OF THE PRODUCTIVE POWER:\n\n\n Impotency, three kinds of, according to the Canon Law 21\n\n Impotency, Causes of, proper to Men 21\n\n Impotency, Causes of, proper to Women 21\n\n Sterility and its Causes 21\n\n Morgagni quoted 21\n\n Clitoris, its length sometimes prevents the sexual\n union--case quoted by Sir Everard Home 24-25\n\n Columbus, Martial, Haller, Juvenal, and Ariosto quoted 25-26\n\n Impotency, Moral Causes of 28-29\n\n Montaigne's Advice 32\n\n Impotency caused by too great warmth of Clothing--Hunter's\n Opinion 33\n\n Point-Tying--Voltaire's Pucelle d'Orl\u00e9ans quoted 35\n\n Point-Tying known to the Ancients--instances quoted 37-38\n\n Point-Tying among the Moderns recognised by James I. 40\n\n Counter-Charm to Point-Tying 41\n\n Agreeable Mode of curing such Enchantment 42\n\n Case of Point-Tying related by Venette 43\n\n Montaigne's curious Story 44\n\n Judicial Congress in Cases of alleged Impotency 47\n\n Manner of conducting the Congress 48\n\n Judicial Congress originated with the Church 52\n\n Judicial Congress practised in France during the 16th and\n 17th Centuries--Forbidden in 1677 52\n\n Boileau quoted 55-56\n\n Cases determined by the Judicial Congress 54-58\n\n Willick, Dr., his Remarks and Advice upon the Sexual\n Intercourse 58-63\n\n\n ESSAY III.\n\n APHRODISIACS AND ANTI-APHRODISIACS:\n\n\n The Mandrake or Duda\u00efm the most ancient aphrodisiac 66\n\n Rachel and Leah 66\n\n Solomon's Song 67\n\n Pliny the Elder quoted 68\n\n Sappho's love for Phaon accounted for 66\n\n Superstitious ideas respecting the mandrake during the\n Middle Ages 69\n\n The Knights Templars accused of adoring it 69\n\n Mandrake, Weir's description of it 70\n\n Mandrake under the name of Mandragora used as a charm 70\n\n Macchiavelli's Comedy of La Mandragora and Voltaire's\n account of it 71\n\n Love potions, Venetian law against them 72\n\n Richard III. accuses Lady Grey of witchcraft 72\n\n Maundrell's account of the Duda\u00efm 73\n\n Singular Aphrodisiac used by the Amazons 75\n\n Philters, or love potions used by the ancients 75\n\n Hippomanes, wonderful powers of, as an aphrodisiac 79\n\n Recipes for love-potions 80\n\n Fish an aphrodisiac--Hecquet's anecdote 86\n\n Mollusca, truffles and mushrooms used as aphrodisiacal 88\n\n George IV.'s appreciation of truffles (note) 88\n\n Effect of truffles described by a lady 89\n\n Latin epigram on the vices of the monks 90\n\n _Na\u00efvet\u00e9_ of a monk on the score of adultery 91\n\n Curious Quatrain in the Church of St. Hyacinth 91\n\n Madame Du Barri's secret 93\n\n Do., Do., description of (note) 93\n\n Tablettes de _Magnanimit\u00e9_--Poudre de joie--Seraglio\n Pastilles 94\n\n Musk, Cantharides--effects of the latter 96\n\n Cardinal Dubois' Account of a Love-Potion 98\n\n Caricature upon Dubois (note) 98\n\n Indian Bang 104\n\n Stimulating Powers of Odours 106\n\n Cabanis quoted 107\n\n D'Obsonville quoted 108\n\n Portable Gold--Shakespeare quoted 109-110\n\n Bouchard's Account of Aphrodisiacal Charms 111\n\n Flagellation--Graham's Celestial Bed--Lady Hamilton--Lord\n Nelson, &c. 121-126\n\n Burton quoted 126\n\n\n ANTI-APHRODISIACS:\n\n\n Refrigerants--Recommendation of Plato and Aristotle 128-129\n\n Sir Thos. Brown quoted 130\n\n Origen 130\n\n Camphor an anti-aphrodisiac 134\n\n Coffee an anti-aphrodisiac--Abernethey's saying (note) 137\n\n Infibulation, Holyday quoted 141-144\n\n Bernasco Padlocks 144\n\n Voltaire's poem of the Cadenas 146\n\n Rabelais' anti-aphrodisiacal remedies 147-154\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: PLATE I., EGYPTIAN PHALLI. AND Pompeian House--sign.]\n\n\n\n\nESSAY I.\n\nREMARKS UPON THE SYMBOLS OF THE\nREPRODUCTIVE POWERS.\n\n\nFrom the investigations and researches of the learned, there appears to\nbe no doubt but that the most ancient of all superstitions was that in\nwhich Nature was contemplated chiefly under the attribute or property of\nfecundity; the symbols of the reproductive power being those under which\nits prolific potencies were exhibited. It is not because modern\nfastidiousness affects to consider those symbols as indecent, and even\nobscene, that we should therefore suppose them to have been so regarded\nby the ancients: on the contrary, the view of them awakened no impure\nideas in the minds of the latter, being regarded by them as the most\nsacred objects of worship. The ancients, indeed, did not look upon the\npleasures of love with the same eye as the moderns do; the tender union\nof the sexes excited their veneration, because religion appeared to\nconsecrate it, inasmuch as their mythology presented to them all Olympus\nas more occupied with amatory delights than with the government of the\nuniverse.\n\nThe reflecting men of those times, more simple, but, it must be\nconfessed, more profound, than those of our own day, could not see any\nmoral turpitude in actions regarded by them as the design of nature, and\nas the acme of felicity. For this reason it is that we find not only\nancient writers expressing themselves freely upon subjects regarded by\nus as indecent, but even sculptors and painters equally unrestrained in\nthis particular.\n\nThe statesman took advantage of these religious impressions: whatever\ntended to increase population being held in honour. Those images and\nPriapi so frequently found in the temples of the ancients, and even in\ntheir houses, and which we consider as objects of indecent lewdness,\nwere, in their eyes, but so many sacred motives exciting them to\npropagate their species.\n\nIn order to represent by a physical object the reproductive power of the\nsun in spring-time, as well as the action of that power on all sentient\nbeings, the ancients adopted that symbol of the male gender which the\nGreeks, who derive it from the Egyptians, called--Phallus.[1] This\nworship was so general as to have spread itself over a large portion of\nthe habitable globe, for it flourished for many ages in Egypt and Syria,\nPersia, Asia Minor, Greece and Italy: it was, and still is, in vigour in\nIndia and many parts of Africa, and was even found in America on its\ndiscovery by the Spaniards. Thus Garcilaso de la Vega informs us[2]\nthat, in the public squares of Panuco (a Mexican town), _bas-reliefs_\nwere found which, like those of India, represented, in various ways the\nsexual union; while at Tlascala, another town of that country, the\nreproductive act was worshipped under the joint symbol of the generative\norgans, male and female.\n\nA more surprising fact is, that this worship has, as will be shewn\nhereafter, been perpetuated to a very late date, among the Christians of\nEurope.\n\nIn its origin, the Phallus or emblem of the generative and procreative\npowers of nature appears to have been of a very simple and inoffensive\ncharacter--although it was afterwards made subservient to the grossest\nand most superstitious purposes.\n\nIn India this worship is everywhere to be found accompanying the triune\nGod, called by the Hindoos, _Trimourti_ or _Trinity_, and the\nsignificant form of the single obelisk or pillar called the _Linga_ or\n_Lingham_;[3] and it should be observed, in justice to the Hindoos that\nit is some comparative and negative praise to them, that this emblem,\nunder which they express the \u00e9l\u00e9ments and operations of nature is not\nexternally indecorous. Unlike the abominable realities of Egypt, Greece,\nand Rome, we see this Indian phallic emblem in the Hindoo religious\nexhibitions, without offence, nor know, until information be extorted,\nthat we are contemplating a symbol whose prototype is obscene.[4]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE II., Fig 1. Lingham, Fig 2. Pan's head.]\n\nBesides the Lingham, the equally significant _Yoni_ or _Cteis_ is to be\nseen, being the female organ of generation. It is sometimes single,\noften in conjunction, for the Indians, believing that the emblem of\nfecundity might be rendered more energetic by combining the organs of\nboth sexes, did so unite them, giving to this double symbol the name of\n_Pulleiar_, confounded by some writers with the Lingham itself. This\npulleiar is highly venerated by the sectarian worshippers of Siva (the\nthird god of the Trimourti), who hang it round their neck, as a charm or\namulet, or enclosing it in a small box, fasten it upon their arm. The\nIndians have also a little jewel called _taly_, worn, in like manner, by\nfemales round their necks as a charm. It is presented to them on their\nwedding day by their husbands, who receive it from the hands of the\nBrahmins. Upon these jewels is engraved the representation, either of\nthe Lingham or of the Pulleiar. The following anecdote connected with\nthis custom is given by M. Sonnerat.[5]\n\n \"A Capuchin missionary had a serious dispute with the\n Jesuits residing at Pondicherry, which was referred for\n decision to the judicial courts. The disciples of Loyola,\n who can be toleration itself when toleration furthers their\n crafty and ambitious views, had declined all interference\n with the above custom. M. Tournon, the Pope's legate\n apostolic, who regarded the matter as one not to be trifled\n with, and with whom, moreover, the Jesuits were no\n favourites, strictly prohibited the _taly_, enjoining all\n female converts to substitute in its place either a cross or\n a medal of the Virgin. The Indian women, strongly attached\n to their ancient customs, refused obedience. The\n missionaries, apprehensive of losing the fruits of their\n zealous labours, and seeing the number of their neophytes\n daily diminishing, entered into a compromise by adopting a\n _mezzo-termine_ with the females in question, and it was\n agreed that a Cross should be engraved upon the _taly_, an\n arrangement by which the symbol of Christian salvation was\n coupled with that of the male and female _pudenda_.\"\n\nThe deep and enthusiastic veneration felt by the Hindoos for this\nworship is naturally explained by their intense anxiety and desire for\nhaving children who might perform those ceremonies to their _manes_\nwhich they firmly and piously believe will have the effect of mitigating\ntheir punishment in the world to come. They worship the _Lingham_,\ntherefore, for the sake of having progeny, and husbands, whose wives are\nbarren, send them to adore that symbol, and, if report be true, the\nladies take especial care not to disappoint the wish of their dear\nspouses.\n\nIt is probable that the introduction of this worship is due to the\nIndians who founded the sect of Siva, imagining, as they no doubt did,\nthat the most effectual means of propagating it would be by presenting\ntheir deity under the form of that organ by which the reproduction of\nthe human race is effected.\n\nNothing can be a greater proof of the high antiquity of the Indians than\nthis worship, it being certain that the Egyptians did not establish it,\nas well as the dogma of the Metempsychosis, among themselves, until\nafter they had travelled in India.\n\nPhalli, usually in lead, have been even found in the river Rh\u00f4ne. These\nwere most likely the signs and tokens belonging to some secret society\nprobably of a licentious character. Similar ones are in the _Forgeais_\ncollection, and were engraved in the _Plombs Histori\u00e9s_ of that\nantiquarian.[6]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE III., Figs. 1-4, PHALLUS EMBLEM, found in the\nRh\u00f4ne, From the Forgeais Collection.]\n\nAccording to an ingenious writer,[7] who is of opinion that the Indians\nsent, at a very remote period, colonists to Ireland, the round towers,\nso numerous in that island, are no other than ancient Phallic temples\nerected in honour of the fructifying power of nature emanating, as it\nwas supposed to do, from the sun, under the name of Sol, Ph\u0153bus,\nApollo, Abad, or Budh.[8]\n\nAlluding to these towers, Mr O'Brien observes, \"the eastern votaries,\nsuiting the action to the idea, and that their vivid imaginations might\nbe still more enlivened by the very _form_ of the _temple_, actually\nconstructed its architecture after the model of the _membrum virile_,\nwhich, obscenity apart, is the divinity-formed and indispensable medium\nselected by God himself for human propagation and sexual prolificacy.\"\nThere is every reason to believe that our _May-pole_ is a relic of the\nancient Phallic worship.\n\n[Illustration: PLATE IV., Fig. 1. ROUND TOWER AT KLONDALKIN, IRELAND.,\nFig. 2. THREE HEADED OSIRIS.]\n\nThe manners of the ancient Hebrews seem to have differed little, if at\nall, in this respect, from those of the nations surrounding them: thus,\nDavid, dancing with all his might before the ark, lifted up his ephod\nand exhibited his nakedness to \"the eyes of the handmaids of his\nservants.\" No blame is attached to the king for such gross indecency\nduring a public and religious ceremony; while Michal, his wife, was\npunished with barrenness, for expressing her disapprobation of his\nconduct.[9]\n\nThis example attests the great respect entertained by the Hebrews for\nthe organs of generation;[10] but we have a further proof of this\nreverence for them in the fact that, when taking a solemn oath, they\nplaced their hand upon them in token of its inviolability: When Abraham,\naddressing \"his oldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he\nhad,\" is made to say, \"Put I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I\nwill make thee swear, by the Lord, the God of Heaven, and the God of the\nearth that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son, of the daughters of\nthe Canaanites:\"[11] and when Jacob, at the point of death, called his\nson Joseph, and said unto him, \"If now I have found grace in thy sight,\nput, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly\nwith me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt,\"[12] the Hebrew text has\nbeen incorrectly translated in both these instances; for, according to\nlearned commentators, it is not the _thigh_, but the _phallus_ that is\nmeant; such tact having, in the opinion of the Rabbins, been introduced\nfor the purpose of doing honour to circumcision.\n\nThis custom obtains in Egypt, even in our own day, for many travellers\nassert that the Arabs, when desirous of saluting or making a promise\nwith great solemnity, place their hand upon the part in question. A case\nin point is related in a letter of the Adjutant-General Julian to a\nmember of the Institute of Egypt.[13] An Egyptian, who had been arrested\nas a spy, and brought before the general, finding that all his\nasservations of innocence could not be understood \"leva sa chemise\nbleue, et prenant son phallus \u00e0 la poign\u00e9e, resta un moment dans\nl'attitude th\u00e9atrale d'un dieu jurant par le Styx. Sa physionomie\nsemblait me dire: _Apr\u00e8s la serment terrible que je fais pour vous\nprouver mon innocence, osez-vous en douter?_ Son geste me rappela que du\ntems d'Abraham on jurait v\u00e9rit\u00e9 en portant la main aux organes de la\ng\u00e9n\u00e9ration.\" The vast antiquity of this custom among the ancient\nEgyptians is proved by figure 2, Plate IV. This figure, which is copied\nfrom Caylus, Vol. VI., Plate I., figure 4, represents Osiris grasping\nhis phallus while taking an oath.\n\nA custom greatly resembling this manner of swearing existed also in the\nnorth of Europe, as is proved by an ancient law still extant: thus, one\nof the articles of the Welsh laws enacted by _Hoel the Good_, provides\nthat, in cases of rape, if the woman wishes to prosecute the offender,\nshe must, when swearing to the identity of the criminal, lay her right\nhand upon the relics of the saints and grasp with her left one, the\npeccant member of the party accused.[14]\n\nIt may be mentioned, _en passant_, that the low Irish in Dublin, and the\nLondon costermongers, often make use of an expression which, whether\nconnected or not with the custom above noted, offers for our\nconsideration a curious coincidence at least. If extra force is to\naccompany an assertion, it is very common for the vulgar to say in\nconclusion: \"_S'elp my taters!_\" or \"_So help me_ TESTES\"--equal to\nsaying, \"_I swear by my member_.\" That the word \"taters\" is a corruption\nof, and vulgarism for, \"_testes_\" we see very readily in the expression\n\"_strain my taters_\"--_i.e._, to pass urine or make water.\n\nThe Greeks had consecrated the same symbols of universal fecundity in\ntheir mysteries, the phallus and the cteis being publicly exhibited in\nthe sanctuary of Eleusis. The _membrum virile_ or _active_ principle of\ngeneration was carried to the temple of Bacchus and there crowned with a\ngarland by one of the most respectable matrons of the town or city. The\nEgyptian Osiris, and the female _pudenda_, or symbol of the _passive_\nprinciple of generation were, in like manner, carried in procession to\nthe temple of Libera or Proserpine.\n\nThe worship of Priapus among the Romans was derived from the Egyptians,\nwho, under the form of Apis, the sacred Bull, worshipped the generative\npower of nature; and, as the syllable _pri_ or _pre_ signifies, in the\nOriental tongue, _principle_, production, or natural or original source,\nthe word _Priapus_ may be translated _principle of production_ or of\n_fecundation of Apis_. The same symbol also bore among the Romans the\nnames of _Tutunus_, _Mutinus_, and _Fascinum_. Among the many places\nwhere this divinity was worshipped, Lampsacus,[15] in Asia Minor, was\nthe most noted on account of the obscene rites there practised. The\nPriapi were of different forms; some having only a human head and the\nPhallus; some with the head of Pan or of a faun--that is, with the head\nand ears of a goat.[16] Others, with their indecent attribute, were\nplaced in the public roads, and were then confounded with the divinities\n_Mercury_ and _Terminus_, who presided over boundaries. Scaliger says\nthat he saw at Rome, in the palace of a cardinal,[17] a similar statue,\nwhose phallus had served as a sign post.[18] All the human part of these\nPriapi were invariably painted red.[19]\n\nWhen furnished with arms, which he was when representing Terminus,\nPriapus held in one hand a reaping hook, and, like Osiris, grasped with\nthe other the characteristic feature of his divinity, which was always\nof a monstrous size and in a state of energy.\n\nIn the towns, Priapus had public chapels, whither such devotees as were\nsuffering from maladies connected with his attributes repaired for the\npurpose of offering to him _ex-votos_ representing the parts afflicted;\nthese ex-votos being sometimes paintings and, at others, little figures\nmade of wax or of wood, and occasionally, even of marble.\n\nFemales as superstitious, as they were lascivious, might be seen\noffering in public to Priapus, as many garlands as they had had lovers.\nThese they would hang upon the enormous phallus of the idol, which was\noften hidden from sight by the number suspended by only one woman.\n\nOthers offered to the god as many phalli, made of the wood of the willow\ntree, as they had vanquished men in a single night.\n\nSt. Augustine informs us that it was considered by the Roman ladies as a\nvery proper and pious custom to require young brides to seat themselves\nupon the monstrous and obscene member of Priapus: and Lactantius says,\n\"Shall I speak of that _Mutinus_, upon the extremity of which brides are\naccustomed to seat themselves in order that the god may appear to have\nbeen the first to receive the sacrifice of their modesty?\"[20]\n\nThese facts prove that the worship of Priapus had greatly degenerated\nwith the Romans, since, losing sight altogether of the object typified,\nthey attach themselves to the symbol alone, in which they could see only\nwhat was indecent; and hence religion became a pretext for\nlibertinism.[21]\n\nRespected so long as the Roman manners preserved their pristine\nsimplicity, but degraded[22] and vilified in proportion as the morals of\nthat people became corrupted, the very sanctuary itself of Priapus\nfailed to protect him from obloquy and ridicule. Christian writers added\ntheir indignant invectives to the biting sarcasms of the poets, and the\nworship of Priapus would have been annihilated had not superstition and\nthe force of habit, that most indestructible of all human affections,\ncome to the rescue. These two powerful levers of mankind triumphed over\nreason and Christianity, and succeeded, notwithstanding the strenuous\nand continued efforts of the latter, in maintaining in some degree the\nworship of that filthy deity; for the Christian priests, while opposing\n_\u00e0 l'outrance_, the superstitions and impure practices already adverted\nto, did not so do, as regarded the other customs equally repugnant to\ndecency and true religion. Less austere to these, and consulting their\nown interests, they turned to their profit the ancient worship\nestablished by the Romans and strengthened by habit: they appropriated\nto themselves what they could not destroy, and, in order to attract to\ntheir side the votaries of Priapus, they made a Christian of him.\n\nBut besides the Lingham of the Indians, the Phallus of the Greeks, and\nthe Priapus of the Romans, the Cross ([Symbol: Tau]), although generally\nthought to be exclusively emblematical of eternal life, has also an\naccount of its fancied similarity to the _membrum virile_, been\nconsidered by many as typical of the reproductive powers of nature. It\nwas known as such to the Indians, being as common in their country as in\nEgypt or in Europe.[23] \"Let not the piety of the Catholic Christian,\"\nsays the Rev. Mr. Maurice, \"be offended at the preceding assertion that\nthe Cross was one of the most usual symbols among the hieroglyphics of\nEgypt and India. Equally honoured in the Gentile and the world, this\nChristian emblem of universal nature, of that world to whose four\ncorners its diverging radii pointed, decorated the hands of most of the\nsculptured images in the former country (Egypt), and the latter (India)\nstamped its form upon the most majestic of the shrines of their\ndeities.\"\n\n[Illustration: PLATE V., Figs. 1-3, THREE HEADED OSIRIS.]\n\nIt is well known that the cross was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as\nthe emblem of fruitfulness. Thus the Rev. Mr. Maurice describes a\nstatue bearing a kind, of cross in its hand as the symbol of fertility,\nor, in other words, of the procreative and generative powers.[24] The\ncross [Symbol: Tau] so common upon Egyptian monuments was known to the\nBuddhists and to the Lama of Thibet 700 years before Christ. The Lama\ntakes his name from the _Lamah_, which is an object of profound\nveneration with his followers: \"Cequi est remarquable,\" says M. Avril,\n\"c'est que le grand pr\u00eatre des Tartares porte le nom de Lama, qui, en\nlangue Tartare, d\u00e9signe _la Croix_, et les Bogdoi qui conquirent la\nChine en 1664, et qui sont soumis au Dulai-Lama dans les choses de la\nreligion, ont toujours des croix sur eux, qu'ils appalent _lamas_.\"[25]\n\nThe letter _Tau_ [Symbol: Tau], being the last one of the ancient\nalphabets, was made to typify, not only the end, boundary, or terminus\nof districts, but also the generative power of the eternal\ntransmigratory life, and was used indiscriminately with the Phallus; it\nwas, in fact, the Phallus.[26] Speaking of this emblem, Payne Knight\nobserves: \"One of the most remarkable of those symbols of generation is\na cross in the form of the letter [Symbol: Tau], which thus served as\nthe emblem of _creation_ and _generation_ before the church adopted it\nas the sign of salvation, a lucky coincidence of ideas which, without\ndoubt, facilitated the reception of it among the faithful.\"[27] And\nagain, \"the male organs of generation are sometimes represented by signs\nof the same sort, which might properly be called symbols of symbols. One\nof the most remarkable of these is the Cross in the form of the letter\n[Symbol: Tau], which thus served as the emblem of creation and\ngeneration.\"[28]\n\nThe famous _Crux ansata_[29] which may be seen on all the monuments of\nEgypt is what is alluded to by the Prophet Ezekiel,[30] and is affirmed\nby the learned L. A. Crozius to be nothing else than the triple Phallus\nmentioned by Plutarch.[31]\n\nWe shall now proceed to notice a few of the traces of the phallic\nworship as were still to be found lingering in some parts of Europe so\nlate as the 18th century, a tenacity of existence by no means surprising\nif it be considered that of all the human affections none is more\ndangerous to oppose, none more difficult to eradicate, than habit.\nAccordingly it will be found that the above superstition has maintained\nitself in countries where Christianity was already established, and\nthat, bidding defiance to the severe precepts of that pure faith, it\nsuccessfully resisted for at least seventeen centuries every effort made\nto extirpate it by the Christian clergy backed by the civil power. Its\ntriumph was, however, by no means complete, for this worship was\nconstrained to yield to circumstances and to use a disguise by adopting\nthe forms and designations peculiar to Christianity, a mask which on the\nother hand, favoured not a little, its preservation.\n\nHence it was that the names of certain legendary saints were given to\nthe ancient God of Lampsacus,[32] the said names having some relation\neither to the act over which that deity presided, or to his most\nprominent attributes.\n\nThe first bishop of Lyon was honoured throughout Provence, Languedoc,\nand the Lyonnais as a saint, and as his name happened to be Pothin,\nPhotin, or Fotin, commonly pronounced by the low orders _Foutin_, these\npeople, who are very apt to judge of the nature of things by the sound\nof the words by which they are designated, thought St. Foutin worthy of\nreplacing Saint Priapus, and accordingly conferred upon him the\nprerogatives of his predecessor.\n\nSaint _Foutin de Varailles_ had particular reverence paid to him in\nProvence, nor is this to be wondered at, since the power was attributed\nto him of rendering barren women fruitful, stimulating flagging\nhusbands, and curing their secret maladies. It was consequently the\ncustom to lay upon his altar, as was formerly done on that of the god\nPriapus, small votive offerings, made of wax, and representing the weak\nor otherwise afflicted parts. Sanci says, \"To this saint are offered\nwaxen models of the _pudenda_ of both sexes. They are strewn in great\nnumbers over the floor of the chapel, and should a gust of wind cause\nthem to rustle against one another, it occasioned a serious interruption\nto the devotions paid to the saint. I was very much scandalized,\"\ncontinues he, \"when, passing through the town, I found the name of\n_Foutin_ very common among the men. My landlord's daughter had for\ngodmother a young lady whose name was _Foutine_.\"\n\nThe same saint was similarly honoured at Embrun. When the Protestants\ntook that town in 1585, they found, among the relics of the principal\nchurch, the _Phallus_ of St. Foutin. The devotees of that town, in\nimitation of pagan ones, made libations to this obscene idol. They\npoured wine over the extremity of the Phallus, which was dyed red by it.\nThis wine being afterwards collected and allowed to turn sour, was\ncalled _the holy vinegar_, and, according to the author from whom this\naccount is taken,[33] was applied by women to a most extraordinary\npurpose; but what that purpose was we are not informed, and therefore\ncan only guess it.\n\nAt Orange there was also a phallus much venerated by the inhabitants of\nthat town. Larger than the one at Embrun, it was, moreover, covered with\nleather, and furnished with its appendages. When, in 1562, the\nprotestants destroyed the church of St. Eutropius, in this town, they\nseized the enormous Phallus and burned it in the market place. Similar\nPhalli were to be found at Poligny, Vendre in the Bourbonnais, and at\nAuxerre.\n\nThe inhabitants of Puy-en-Velay even to this day speak of their St.\n_Foustin_ who, in times not far remote from our own, was invoked by\nbarren women who, under the idea of giving greater efficacy to their\nprayers, scraped the phallus of the saint, and, mixing the particles so\nabraded in water, devoutly swallowed them, in the hope of thereby being\nrendered fruitful.\n\nIt is no doubt to one of these phallic saints that Count de Gebelin\nrefers when, speaking of the goat _Mend\u00e9s_, he says: \"I have read\nsomewhere that in the south of France there existed not long ago a\ncustom resembling the one mentioned; the women of that part of the\ncountry devoutly frequented a temple containing a statue of the saint,\nand which statue they embraced, expecting that their barrenness would be\nremoved by the operation.\"[34]\n\nIn the neighbourhood of Brest stood the chapel of the famous Saint\nGuignole, or Guingalais, whose Phallic symbol consisted of a long wooden\nbeam which passed right through the body of the saint, and the fore-part\nof which was strikingly characteristic. The devotees of this place, like\nthose of Puy-en-Velay, most devoutly rasped the extremity of this\nmiraculous symbol for the purpose of drinking the scrapings mixed with\nwater as an antidote against sterility, and when by the frequent\nrepetition of this operation, the beam was worn away, a blow with a\nmallet in the rear of the saint propelled it immediately in front. Thus,\nalthough it was being continually scraped, it appeared never to\ndiminish, a miracle due exclusively to the mallet.\n\nAntwerp was the Lampsacus of Belgium, Priapus being the tutelary god of\nthat city. _Ters_ was the name given to him by the inhabitants who held\nthis divinity in the greatest veneration. Females were accustomed to\ninvoke him on the most trivial occasions, a custom which Goropius\ninforms us continued as late as the 16th century.[35]\n\nSo inveterate was this superstition that Godefrey de Bouillon, marquis\nof that city, the illustrious leader of the first crusade, in order to\neradicate it, or to replace it by the ceremonies of the Christian\nchurch, sent to Antwerp, from Jerusalem, as a present of inestimable\nvalue, the _foreskin of Jesus Christ_.[36] This precious relic, however,\nfound but little favour with the Belgian ladies, and utterly failed to\nsupersede their beloved _Fascinum_.[37]\n\nIn the kingdom of Naples, in the town of Trani, the capital of the\nprovince of that name, there was carried in procession, during the\nCarnival, an old wooden statue representing an entire Priapus, in the\nancient proportions; that is to say, that the distinguishing\ncharacteristic of that god was very disproportioned to the rest of the\nidol's body, reaching, as it did, to the height of his chin. The people\ncalled this figure _il Santo Membro_, the holy member. This ancient\nceremony, evidently a remains of the feasts of Bacchus, called by the\nGreeks _Dyonysiacs_, and by the Romans _Liberalia_, existed as late as\nthe commencement of the 18th century, when it was abolished by Joseph\nDavanzati, archbishop of that town.\n\nSir W. Hamilton's account of the worship paid to St. Cosmo and St.\nDamianus is very curious. \"On the 27th September, at Isernia, one of the\nmost ancient cities of the kingdom of Naples, situated in the province\ncalled the Contado di Molise, and adjoining the Aruzzo, an annual fair\nis held which lasts three days. On one of the days of the fair the\nrelics of Sts. Cosmo and Damianus are exposed. In the city and at the\nfair, _ex-votos_ of wax representing the male parts of generation, of\nvarious dimensions, sometimes even of the length of a palm, are publicly\nexposed for sale. There was also waxen vows that represent other parts\nof the body mixed with them, but of those there are few in comparison of\nthe number of the Priapi.\"\n\n[Illustration: PLATE VI., Fig. 1, SILVER EX VOTO, Fig. 2. DUDAIM.]\n\nThe distributors of these vows carry a basket full of them in one hand,\nand hold a plate in the other, to receive the money, crying out, \"Saints\nCosmo and Damianus!\" If you ask the price of one, the answer is, \"_pi\u00f9\nci metti, pi\u00f9 meriti_;\" the more you give, the more the merit. The vows\nare chiefly presented by the female sex, and they are seldom such as\nrepresent legs, arms, &c., but most commonly the male parts of\ngeneration. The person who was at the _f\u00e9te_, in the year 1780, and who\ngave me this account (the authenticity of which has since been confirmed\nto me by the governer of Isernia) told me also that he heard a woman\nsay, at the time she presented a vow, \"_Santo Cosmo, benedetto, cosi lo\nvoglio_.\" Blessed St. Cosmo, \"let it be like this!\" The vow is never\npresented without being accompanied by a piece of money, and is always\nkissed by the devotee at the moment of presentation.[38]\n\nBut, as might naturally be expected, this does not suffice to fructify\nbarren women; and consequently another ceremony, one which is doubtless\nmore efficacious, was required.\n\nThe parties who resort to this fair, slept for two nights, some in the\nchurch of the Capuchian friars and the others in that of the Cordeliers,\nand when these two churchs were found to be insufficient to contain the\nwhole of such devotees, the church of the Hermitage of St. Cosmo\nreceived the surplus.\n\nIn the three edifices, the women were during the two nights, separated\nfrom the men, the latter lying under the vestibule, and the women, in\nthe church, these, whether in the church of the Capuchins or in that of\nthe Cordeliers, were under the protection of the Father guardian, the\nvicar, and a monk of merit. In the hermitage, it was the hermit himself\nwho watched over them.\n\nFrom this it may easily be imagined how the miracle was effected without\ntroubling Saint Cosmo and Saint Damianus at all, in the matter, as well\nas that the virtue, possessed by those two saints was extended even to\nyoung maidens and widows.\n\n\n\n\nEssay II.\n\nANAPHRODISIA; OR, ABSENCE OF THE REPRODUCTIVE\nPOWER.\n\n\nA description of the symbols under which the _reproductive power_ was\nanciently worshipped, having been given in the preceding Essay, the\npresent one will contain some account of the _negation_ or _absence_ of\nthat faculty, whether total or partial, as known under the names of\n_Impotency_ and _Sterility_.\n\nPotency or power, as regards the generative act, may be defined as--the\naptitude or ability to beget; and Impotency, the negation or absence of\nsuch power.\n\nThe canon law distinguished three kinds of impotency--viz., that which\nproceeds from frigidity; that which is caused by sorcery (ligature or\npoint-tying), and that which proceeding from some defect of conformation\nis properly designated as _impotentia coeundi_. The different lends of\nimpotency may be thus classed--1. Those which are proper to men; 2.\nThose proper to women, and 3. Those common to both sexes.\n\nThe causes of impotency proper to man are natural frigidity; defect of\nconformation, and accident.\n\nThe causes of impotency proper to women are all such obstacles as arise\n_ex clausur\u00e2 uteri aut nimia arctitudine_.\n\nThe causes common both to men and women are the defect of puberty and\nimperfect conformation.[39]\n\nImpotency may also be divided into natural and accidental; the former\nbeing that which a person is born with, or which proceeds _ex vitio\nnaturalis temperamenti vel partium genitalium_; and the latter that\nwhich arises from some accident, as _ex casu vel morbo_.[40]\n\nAnother definition of impotency in man is the _non posse seminare in\nvase idoneo_; three things being considered as indispensable to his due\nperformance of the generative act.--_Ut arriget_ or erection; 2, _Ut vas\nf\u0153mineum resaret_, or intromission, and 3, _Ut in vase seminat_, or\nemission.\n\nSterility must not be confounded with impotency. Many women are barren,\nbut very few are impotent; while, on the contrary, many men are impotent\nwho ought not, on that account, to be regarded as barren. In either sex\nimpotency is present when from whatever cause an individual cannot\nconcur in the sexual contact. Sterility exists when the contact, after\nhaving been regularly accomplished, is followed by no productive result.\n\nWith the exception of those pathological cases in which deformities are\nsometimes, but very rarely, met with, it may be affirmed that woman is\nnever impotent, for her organization opposes it. Radical impotence, in\nfact, results in the female from the complete absence, or the occlusion\nsimply, of the vagina. Now, these cases are extremely rare, and may\nthere fore be considered as exceptions or as real monstrosities.\n\nAs the causes of sterility in women are numerous and of various kinds,\nwe shall briefly enumerate them.\n\nThe absence of ovaries or their deceased state are the radical cause of\nsterility. These causes may be suspected but not cured. When there is no\nuterus, still fecundation and pregnancy are not impossible, since\nextra-uterine pregnancies are occasionally observed, that is to say,\ncases in which the product of conception has escaped the uterus, end\nproceeded to establish itself in some point of the lower belly. Neither\nis the vagina indispensable, for cases are cited of the contraction of\nthis organ accompanied by the rectovaginal fistula, in which fecundation\nis effected, although the fecundating fluid had been confined to the\nrectum.\n\nFemale masturbation is another rife cause of barrenness in women. If it\nbe true that the number of eggs is limited, and that there are not more\nthan from 15 to 20 in each ovary, it is evident that sterility must\nensue when these 15 or 20 eggs have been detached without fecundation.\nIf, on the contrary, new eggs are continually secreted by the ovaries,\nit is equally evident that the secretory action must, sooner or later,\nbecome exhausted by the over excitement caused by the indulgence above\nmentioned.\n\nAnother very great cause of sterility, and which must be of frequent\noccurrence, is found in the obstructed or choked-up state of the\nFallopian tubes. These passages, which establish the communication\nbetween the ovary and the uterus, may be obstructed by inflammation,\neither acute or chronic, to which they must be subject in all diseases\nto the abdomen, as well as by frequent excitement.\n\nMorgagni speaks of certain women of the town, with whom the Fallopian\ntubes were completely obliterated by the thickening of the parietes or\nsides, an evident consequence of the continual orgasm in which they were\nkept by immoderate indulgence in coition.\n\nThe absence of menstruation almost always induces barrenness. Cases are,\nnotwithstanding, reported in which women have their menses during\npregnancy, but these are exceptions which so far from invalidating the\nrule, confirm it.\n\nPolypi, or the developement of fibrous bodies in the uterus, present an\nequal obstacle to fecundation, their presence having the effect of\nperverting the physiological functions of the uterus, nor does their\nremoval always cause sterility to disappear.\n\nImpotency in women can only result from the absence of the vagina, or\nfrom its excessive narrowness which does not allow of the approach of\nthe male, although instances have occured of fecundation being effected\nwithout the introduction of the male organ. Thus cases have been found\nof women who have been fecundated, and have even arrived at the term of\npregnancy, having been obliged to submit to a surgical operation for the\nremoval of the Hymen, which membrane had not been broken in the acts\nwhich had nevertheless effected the fecundation. Lastly, the excessive\nlength, when it does exist, of the clitoris, also opposes the conjugal\nact, by the difficulty it presents to the introduction of the\nfecundating organ; the only remedy to employed in this case consists in\namputation, an operation which has been frequently performed. The organ\nin question is known to resemble, in a very great degree, the virile\nmember, both in external form and internal structure, to be susceptible\nof erection and relaxation and endowned with exquisite sensibility. It\nhas been seen equal to the penis in volume. A remarkable instance is\ngiven by Home.[41] It occured in a negress who was purchased by General\nMelville, in the island of Dominica, in the West Indies, about the year\n1744. She was of the Mandango nation, 24 years of age, her breasts were\nvery flat, she had a rough voice, and a masculine countenance. The\nclitoris was two inches long, and in thickness resembled a common sized\nthumb, when viewed at same distance the end appeared round and of a red\ncolour, but upon closer examination was found to be more pointed than\nthat of a penis, and having neither prepuce nor perforation; when\nhandled it became half erected, and was in that state fully three inches\nlong and much thicker than before: when she voided her urine she was\nobliged to lift it up, as it completely covered the orifice of the\nurethra. The other parts of the female organs were found to be in a\nnatural state. Columbus quotes the existence of a woman who had a\nclitoris as long as the little finger. Haller speaks of another in whom\nthis organ was seven inches in length. Some have even been said to be of\nthe monstrous length of twelve inches. These are the enormous dimensions\nwhich sometimes deceive as to the real character of the sex, and which\nhave occasioned a belief in the existence of real hermaphrodites. Women\nso formed have also a great disposition to usurp the virile functions;\nthey preserve scarcely anything of their sex except their habits and\nmanners. Their stature is in general tall, their limbs muscular, their\nface masculine, their voice deep, and their deportment bold and\nmanly--in a word, they completely justify the words of Martial:\n\n \"Mentiturque virum prodigiosa Venus.\"[42]\n\nIn the case of man's impotency it often happens, on the contrary, that,\nwith organs to all appearance perfectly formed, he is, nevertheless,\nimpotent.\n\nIf the woman be organized for receiving, the man is formed for\nimparting; now, in the majority, of cases, his impotency is such that,\nalthough he seems to be provided with abundant stores he is precluded\nfrom offering them.\n\n ... \"Si\n Coneris, jacet exiguus cum ramice nervus\n Et quamvis tota palpetur nocte, jacebit.\"[43]\n\nSuch, in fact, is the great difficulty of those individuals who have\nabused their organs and destroyed their sensibility. The erectile tissue\nwhose turgescence is indispensable, no longer admits into its vascular\n_plexus_ or network, a quantity of fluid sufficient to give the organ\nthe power of penetrating--_jacet exiguus_--and, although it may be\nsupposed that the seminal glands perform their functions perfectly well,\nand secrete abundantly the fluid peculiar to them, the copulative organ\nremains paralyzed. This is the impotence which is brought on by old age,\nand which Ariosto has so forcibly described in the following lines,\nwherein he relates the futile attempts made upon Angelica by the hermit:\n\n Egli l'abbraccia, ed a piacer la tocca:\n Ed ella dorme, e non pi\u00f9 fare ischermo:\n Or le baccia il bel petto, ora la bocca,\n Non \u00e8, ch'l veggia, in quel loco aspro ed ermo.\n Ma nel incontro, it suo destrier trabocca\n Che al desio non risponde, it corpo infirmo:\n .........\n .........\n .........\n Tutte le vie, tutti i modi tenta,\n _Ma quel pigre rozzo non per\u00f2 salta_\n Indarno el fren gli scoute e li tormenta\n E non pu\u00f2 far che tenga la testa alta.[44]\n\nAt other times the impotency of the man is independent of the secretion\nof the fecundating fluid and even of the erection, both of which are\nregular. In such case it is caused either by the gland not being\nproperly perforated, or by a contraction of the urethral canal, which\ncontraction arrests the seminal fluid at the moment of expulsion,\ncausing it to flow back towards the bladder, or else intercepting the\ncontinuous stream and allowing it to run by dribblets only. The former\nof these imperfections technically called _Hypospsdi\u00e6os_ is a vice of\nconformation in which the penis, instead of being perforated at the\nsummit of the gland, presents its opening at a greater or less distance\nfrom the gland, at the lower part of the urethra or at the _perin\u00e6um_.\n\nAs might be expected, impotency when precocious, influences, in no small\ndegree, the moral character. Cabanis knew three men who, in the vigour\nof age, had suddenly became impotent, although in other respects they\nwere in good health, much engaged in business, and had but little reason\nto be affected by the loss of pleasures in which they indulged but very\nrarely and with great moderation, yet their character became gloomy and\nirascible, and their mental powers appeared to diminish daily.[45] The\ncelebrated Ribeiro Sanchez, a pupil of Boerhaave, observes in his\n\"_Trait\u00e9 des maladies V\u00e9n\u00e9riennes chroniques_,\" that these diseases\nparticularly dispose those subject to them to superstitious terrors.\n\nImpotency may, however, equally proceed from moral as from physical\ncauses. In this case it consists in the total privation of the\nsensibility peculiar to the reproductive organs. This insensibility is\nby no means infrequent in persons whose mental powers are continually in\naction, as the following case will shew:--\n\nA celebrated mathematician of a very robust constitution, having married\na young and pretty woman, lived several years with her, but had not the\nhappiness of becoming a father. Far from being insensible to the charms\nof his fair wife, he, on the contrary, felt frequently impelled to\ngratifying his passion, but the conjugal act, complete in every other\nrespect, was never crowned by the emission of the seminal fluid. The\ninterval of time which occurred between the commencement of his labour\nof love and the end was always sufficiently long to allow his mind,\nwhich had been for a moment abstracted by his pleasure, to be brought\nback to the constant objects of his meditation--that is, to geometrical\nproblems or algebraical formula. At the very moment even of the orgasm,\nthe intellectual powers resumed their empire and all genital sensation\nvanished. Peirible, his medical adviser, recommended Madame ---- never to\nsuffer the attentions of her husband until he was _half-seas-over_, this\nappearing to him the only practicable means of withdrawing her learned\nspouse from influence of the divine Urania and subjecting him more\nimmediately to that of the seductive goddess of Paphos. The advice\nproved judicious. Monsieur ---- became the father of several fine and\nhealthy boys and girls, thus furnishing another proof of the truth of\nthe maxim, \"_Sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus_.\"\n\nBut the impotency arising from the predominance of the intellect is the\nleast formidable of all. The one most to be dreaded is that which\nresults from the excessive and premature exercise of the reproductive\nfunctions, for, as has been well observed, \"the too frequent indulgence\nof a natural propensity at first increases the concomitant desire and\nmakes its gratification a part of the periodical circle of action; but\nby degrees the over excitement of the organs, abating their tone and\nvitality, unfits them for the discharge of their office, the\naccompanying pleasures are blunted, and give place to satiety and\ndisgust.\"[46]\n\nSuch unfortunate persons as are the victims of this kind of anaphrodisia\nbecome old long before their natural time, and have all their generative\napparatus blasted with impotency. Their testicles withered and dried up\nsecrete nothing but a serous fluid void of all virtue; the erectile\ntissue no longer admits into its plexus the quantum of blood necessary\nfor turgescence, the principal organ of the reproductive act remains in\na state of flaccidity, insensible to the reiterated and most stimulating\nsolicitations; the muscles destined to favour erection are stricken with\nparalysis, and the violence of their desires, joined to the want of\npower to gratify them, drives the unhappy victim to acts of the most\nrevolting lubricity and thence to despair.\n\nAn instance of this kind occurred in the case of a young man, the son of\nan opulent family. He had arrived at puberty, but from the early age of\nten had been accustomed to indulge in indecent familiarities with young\ngirls, who had gratified him by lascivious manipulations; the\nconsequence was an entire loss of the erectile power. Travelling being\nrecommended, he proceeded to France, where he consulted, but without\navail, several celebrated physicians. He then went to the waters of Spa,\nand there his case was attentively and anxiously considered by Van-Hers.\n\nThe sensibility and weakness of the genital member were so great that\non the slightest touch, and without any sensation or desire to sexual\nintercourse the young man emitted a fluid similar to whey. This\nsecretion continued night and day, every time that he made water, or\nupon the slightest friction of his linen. After various remedies being\nproposed, without any beneficial results, Van-Hers considered the\ndisease as incurable; but, as the patient would not coincide in his\nopinion and was very rich, he continued his travels in Italy, France,\nand Germany, in the hope of recovering his powers of virility. He failed\nnot, as usual, to meet with physicians who, from mercenary motives, held\nout to him the most illusory prospects of a perfect cure. At length,\nafter six years passed in travelling and in vain attempts to regain the\ngenerative faculty, he returned to the candid and able physician from\nwhom he had the truth, and whose opinion he was now convinced was but\ntoo well founded. As may be supposed, Van-Hers perceived no new\ncircumstance to justify an alteration in his view of the case, and the\nunfortunate young man returned home, deeply deploring the advantages of\na fortune which had made him the victim of the precocious abuse of\npleasures to which he must now bid adieu for ever.[47] Too great warmth\nof passion may not only defeat its own object, but also produce a\ntemporary impotency. A lover, after having, with all the ardour of\naffections, longed for the enjoyment of his mistress, finds himself at\nthe moment of fruition incapable of consummating his happiness. The only\nremedy for this misfortune is to allay the over-excitement and to\nrestrain the exuberance of the imagination. It would be madness to\npersist in endeavouring to obtain a victory which must be certain, as\nsoon as the heat of the animal spirits being abated, a portion of them\nproceeds to animate the agents of voluptuous passion. The following are\ncases of this description.\n\n \"A young man whose wife's relations had promised him a\n considerable estate as soon as she proved to be pregnant,\n fatigued himself to no purpose by continued devotions at the\n shrine of love; his over anxiety defeating the very object\n he so ardently desired to accomplish. In despair at the\n failure of his repeated efforts, he was, at length, on the\n point of believing his wife barren, when, following the\n advice of a judicious physician, he absented himself from\n home for a fortnight, and upon his return proved by the\n success which attended his amorous labours, that absence is\n sometimes the best doctor.\"\n\n \"A noble Venetian, aged twenty years, was married to a very\n handsome lady, with whom he cohabited with a good deal of\n vigour, but never could emit semen in the coition, whereas\n in his dreams he could discharge very freely. This\n misfortune very much afflicted him and his family; and as no\n remedy could be found at home, the Venetian ambassadors\n residing at the different courts of Europe were desired to\n consult some of the most eminent physicians in the cities\n where they resided, to account for the causes, and to find a\n cure for this extraordinary complaint of the difference of\n the states when in sleep and when actually in coition.\n\n \"I was of opinion that it consisted altogether in the\n urethra being closely shut by the vigour of the erection in\n coition which found so great a resistance that the powers\n that throw the seed out of the _vesicul\u00e6 seminals_ could not\n overcome it; whereas, in dreams, the pressure on the urethra\n being much less, an evacuation was affected.\"\n\nThe method of cure was not less successful than obvious from the\nforegoing account: for gentle evacuations and a slender diet brought\nabout and fully completed their desires.[48]\n\nCabanis is of opinion that debility of the stomach almost always\nproduces a similar state in the organs of generation. \"L'\u00e9nergie ou la\nd\u00e9bilit\u00e9 de l'\u00e9stomac produit, presque toujours, un \u00e9tat analogue dans\nceux de la g\u00e9n\u00e9ration. J'ai soign\u00e9 un jeune homme chez qui la paralysie\naccidentelle de ces derniers avait \u00e9t\u00e9 produit par certains vices de la\ndigestion stomachique; et qui reprit la vigueur de son \u00e2ge, aussit\u00f4t\nqu'il e\u00fbt r\u00e9couvr\u00e9 la puissance de dig\u00e9rer.\"[49]\n\nOld Montaigne's advice in cases similar to those above cited is worthy\nof notice. \"As to what concerns married people,\" says he, \"having the\nyear before them, they ought never to compel, or so much as offer at the\nfeat, if they do not find themselves very ready. And it is better\nindecently to fail of handling the nuptial sheets, and of paying the\nceremony due to the wedding night, when man perceives himself full of\nagitation and trembling, expecting another opportunity at a better and\nmore private leisure, when his fancy shall be better composed, than to\nmake himself perpetually miserable for having misbehaved himself, and\nbeing baffled at the first result. Till possession be taken, a man that\nknows himself subject to this infirmity, should leisurely and by degrees\nmake certain little trials and light offers, without attempting at once\nto force an absolute conquest over his own mutinous and indisposed\nfaculties; such as know their members to be naturally obedient to their\ndesires, need to take no other care but only to counterplot their fancy.\nThe indocile and rude liberty of this scurvy member, is sufficiently\nremarkable by its importunate, unruly, and unseasonable tumidity and\nimpatience at such times as we have nothing for it to do, and by its\nmost unseasonable stupidity and disobedience when we stand most in need\nof its vigour, so imperiously contesting the authority of the will, and\nwith so much obstinacy denying all solicitations of hand and fancy. And\nyet, though his rebellion is so universally complained of, and that\nproofs are not wanting to condemn him, if he had, nevertheless, feed me\nto plead his cause, I should, peradventure, bring the rest of his\nfellow-members into suspicion of complotting the mischief against him,\nout of pure envy of the importance and ravishing pleasure peculiar to\nhis employment, so as to have, by confederacy, armed the whole world\nagainst him, by malevolently charging him alone with their common\noffence.\"[50]\n\nToo great warmth of clothing round the parts of generation, or too great\npressure upon them, may be reckoned as causes of impotency. The custom\nof wearing breeches was considered by Hippocrates[51] as a predisposing\ncause of the impotency so common among the ancient Scythians. Mr. Hunter\nwas also of opinion that this article of dress by keeping the parts too\nwarm, affording them a constant support, and allowing the muscles but\nlittle freedom of motion, may, at least, relax and cause them to become\nflaccid, if it do not totally incapacitate them for the due performance\nof their functions.\n\nEqually disadvantageous, in this respect, is the practice of riding upon\nhorseback, as the organs of generation are, of necessity, frequently\ncompressed either against the saddle or the horse's back. Lalemant, in\nhis Commentaries upon Hippocrates, adduces the case of bakers, upon\nwhom, by their not wearing breeches, the contrary effect is produced.\n\"We have often heard,\" says he, \"that bakers and others whose parts of\ngeneration are not covered by clothing, but hang freely, have large,\nwell-grown testicles.\"[52]\n\nAnother cause of impotency is the allowing the parts of generation to\nremain too long in a state of inaction. Those parts of the body which\nare most exercised are always found to be better grown, stronger, and\nmore fitted for the discharge of their natural functions provided the\nexercise be neither too violent nor too frequent. The parts, on the\ncontrary, which are condemned to rest and inactivity wither and\ngradually lose their tone, as well as the power of effecting the\nmovements natural to them. Galen observes that the genital organs of the\nathlet\u00e6, as well as those of all such whose profession or calling\ncompelled them to remain chaste, were generally shrunken and wrinkled\nlike those of old men, and that the contrary is the case with those who\nuse them to an excess. \"All the athlet\u00e6,\" says he, \"as well as those who\nfor the sake of preserving or improving the voice, are, from their\nyouth, debarred the pleasures of love, have their natural parts shrunken\nand wrinkled like those of old men, while, in such as have from an early\nage indulged in those delights to an excess, the vessel of those parts,\nby the habit of being dilated, cause the blood to flow there in great\nabundance, and the desire of coition to be proportionately increased,\nall which is a natural consequence of those general laws which all our\nfaculties obey. Thus it is that the breasts of women who have never had\nchildren remain always small, while those of females who have been\nmothers, and who suckle their children, acquire a considerable volume,\nthat they continue to give milk as long as they suckle their infants,\nand that their milk does not fail until they cease to nourish them.\"[53]\nSo well, indeed, was this fact known to the ancients, that Aristophanes\nuses the expression, [Greek: _p\u00f4osth\u00ean mikran_], _penem exiguum_, as an\nattribute of a youth who has preserved his innocence and [Greek: _k\u00f4l\u00ean\nmegal\u00ean_], _penem magnum_, as the sign of a dissolute one.\n\nIt will easily be supposed that superstition when brought to act upon\nweak and ignorant minds, is capable of producing temporary impotence.\nThe pretended charm or witchery common in France as late as the close of\nthe 17th century, and known by the name of _nouer l'aiguillette_ (point\ntying) is a proof of this:\n\n Ami lecteur, vous avez quelquefois\n Oui conter qu'on _nouait l'aiguillette_,\n C'est une \u00e9trange et terrible recette,\n Et dont un Saint ne doit jamais user,\n Que quand d'un autre il ne peut s'aviser.\n D'un pauvre amant, le feu se tourne en glance;\n Vif et perclus, sans rien faire, il se lasse;\n Dans ses efforts \u00e9tonn\u00e9 de languir,\n Et consume sur le bord du plaisir.\n Telle une fleur des fear du jour s\u00e9ch\u00e9e,\n La t\u00eate basse, et la tige pench\u00e9e,\n Demande en vain les humides vapeurs\n Qui lui rendaient la vie et les couleurs.[54]\n\nIn olden times, prior to the invention of buttons, the femoral\nhabiliments of men, or hose, as they were called, were fastened up by\nmeans of tags or points (Gallice) _aiguillettes_. Thus, Falstaff says,\n\"Their points being cut, down fell their hose.\" From this French word\n_aiguillette_ was derived the term _nouer aiguillette_ (to tie up the\npoints), equivalent to--button up the flap, to express the rendering, by\nenchantment, a husband incapable of performing the conjugal rite. The\nwhole secret of this charm consisted in the impostor choosing for his\nvictim an individual whose youth, inexperience, or superstition\npresented him with a fit subject to work upon. The imagination of the\nparty being already predisposed for the trick, a look, a sign, a menace,\neither of the voice or of the hand, accompanied by some extraordinary\ngesture, was sufficient to produce the effect, and, as the mere\napprehension of an evil frequently occasions its occurrence, it followed\nthat, superstition having prepared the event, the latter, in his turn,\nfortified the superstition, a vicious circle which may justly be\nconsidered an opprobrium to a man's intelligence.\n\nThat such was the opinion entertained of it by sensible men when it was\nin vogue, will be seen by the following curious passage from an old and\nquaint French writer:\n\n \"Quelques uns tiennent cela pour superstition, qui quand on\n dit la Messe des espous\u00e9es, lorsque l'on prononce ce mot\n _Sara_, \u00e0 la b\u00e9n\u00e9diction nuptiale, si vous estrerignez une\n esguillette, que le mari\u00e9 ne pourra rien faire \u00e1 son\n espous\u00e9e la nuict suyuante, tant que la dite esguillette\n demeurera no\u00fc\u00e9e. Ce que j'ay veu exp\u00e9rimenter faux infinies\n fois: car pourveuque l'esguillette du compagnon soit\n destach\u00e9e, et qu'il siot bien roide et bien au point il ne\n faut point douter qu'il n'accoustre bien la besongne, comme\n il appartient. Aussi donne l'on vn folastre amulette et\n digne du subject: c'est \u00e0 s\u00e7avoir que pour oster le sort, it\n faut pisser au travers d'une bague de laquelle on a est\u00e9\n espous\u00e9. V\u00e9ritablement ie le croy: car c'est \u00e0 dire, en bon\n Fran\u00e7ais que si on degoutte dans cet anneau de Hans Carvel,\n il n'y a charme qui puisse nuire. Aussi nouer l'esguillette\n ne signifie autre chose qu'vn co\u00fcard amant qui aura le\n m\u0113bre aussi peu dispos\u00e9, que si l'esguillette ne sa brayette\n estoit nou\u00e9e.\"[55]\n\nAs to the mode itself of conjuration, Bodin, a writer upon these\nsubjects, asserts that there are not less than fifty different ways of\nperforming it: of all which the most efficacious one is to take a small\nstrip or thong of leather, or silken or worsted thread, or cotton cord,\nand to make on it three knots successively, each knot, when made, being\naccompanied by the sign of the cross, the word _Ribald_ being pronounced\nupon making the first knot, _Nabal_ upon making the second one, and\n_Vanarbi_ upon making the third and last one; all which must be done\nduring the celebration of the marriage ceremony. For the sake of change,\none of the verses of the _Miserere mei, Deus!_ may be repeated\nbackwards, the names of the bride and bridegroom being thrice\npronounced. The first time, the knot must be drawn rather tight; the\nsecond time still more so, and the third time quite close. Vulgar\noperators content themselves with pronouncing some cabalistic words\nduring the marriage rite, tracing, at the same time, some mysterious\nfigures or diagrams on the earth with the left foot, and affixing to the\ndress of the bride or bridegroom small slips of paper having magical\ncharacters inscribed upon them. Further details may be found in the\nworks of Sprenger, an inquisitor, Crespet of Sans, Debris, a Jesuit,\nBodin, Wier, De Lancre, and other learned demonologists.\n\nThis species of enchantment was not unknown to the ancients. Accordingly\nto Herodotus[56] Amasis was prevented enjoying his wife Ladice by a\nsorcery of this description, nor was it till after the Queen had vowed a\nstatue to Venus, \"_si secum coiret Amasis_,\" that the king's wishes and\nher own were gratified.\n\nPlato warns married persons against such sorceries.[57] Virgil speaks\nalso of impotency effected by ligature.\n\n Terna tibi h\u00e6c primum, duplici diversa colore\n Licia circumdo.[58]\n\nOvid admits the power of such charms in the following lines:\n\n Carmine l\u00e6sa, Ceres sterilem vanescit in herbam\n Deficiunt l\u00e6si carmine fontis aqu\u00e6:\n Ilicibus glandes, cantataque vitibus uva\n Decedit, et nulla forma movente, flexunt.\n Quid vetat et nervos\n Et juveni et Cupido, carmine abesse viro.[59]\n\nOf that most detestable of all tyrants, Nero, it is said that, finding\nhe could not enjoy a female whom he passionately desired, he complained\nof having been bewitched.\n\nThe fables of Apuleius are full of the enchantments of Pamphilus.[60]\n\nNumantina, the first wife of Plautius Sylvanus, was accused of having\nrendered her husband impotent by means of sorcery \"injecisse carminibus\net veneficiis vecordium marito.\"[61]\n\nPaulus (Julius) of Tyr states that the law of the Twelve Tables\ncontained an express prohibition against the employment of ligatures;\n\"qui, sacra, impia nocturnave fecerint, ut quem incantarent,\nobligarent,\" &c.[62]\n\nGregory of Tours relates[63] that Eulatius having taken a young woman\nfrom a monastery and married her, his concubines, actuated by jealousy,\nput such a spell upon him, that he could by no means consummate his\nnuptials. Paulus \u00c6milius, in his life of King Clovis says that Theodoric\nsent back his wife Herm\u00e9berge to her father, the King of Spain, as he\nhad received her, a pure virgin, the force of witchcraft having\nincapacitated him from taking her maidenhead; which sorcery Aimoinus\nMonachaus[64] asserts to have been effected by Queen Brunchante.\n\nThe practise of point tying was formerly so general that princes and\nprincess made it one of their most amusing pastimes. Louis Sforza having\nseen the young Princess Isabella, daughter of Alphonso King of Arragon,\nand who was betrothed to Geleas, duke of Milan, was so enamoured of her\nbeauty that he point-tyed Geleas for several months. Marie de Padille,\nconcubine of Don Pedro King of Castille and Leon, point-tied him so\neffectually that he could not give the least marks of his fondness to\nhis consort Queen Blanche.\n\nThat the church acknowledged the power of these point-tiers is proved by\nthe fact of their having been publicly anathematized by the provincial\nCouncils of Milan and Tours, the Synods of Mont-Cassin and Ferriare, and\nby the clergy of France assembled at M\u00e9lun in 1579. A great number of\nrituals specify the means to be employed as counter-charms to the\nsorceries of the point-tiers; and the Cardinal Cu Perron,[65] a very\nable and experienced prelate, has inserted in the ritual of Evreux very\nsage directions for this purpose. Similar precautions may be found in\nthe synodal statues of Lyons, Tours, Sens, Narbonne, Bourges, Troyes,\nOrl\u00e9ans, and many other celebrated churches. St. Augustine, St. Thomas\nand Peter Lombard positively recognise the power of point-tying and of\ndisturbing, in this manner, married persons in the enjoyment of their\ndearest privilege. \"_Certum est_,\" says St. Augustine, \"_corporis vires\nincantationibus vinciri_.\"\n\nOur James I., who prided himself so much upon his skill in demonology,\ndeclares positively that sorcerers and witches possess the power of\npoint-tying, \"Or else by staying married folkes, to have naturally adoe\nwith other, _by knitting knottes upon a point at the time of their\nmarriage_.\"[66]\n\nThe old parliament of France have generally admitted the power of these\nsorcerers. In 1582 the Parliament of Paris condemned one Abel de la Rue\nto be hung and afterwards burnt for having wickedly and wilfully\npoint-tied Jean Moreau de Contommiers. A singular sentence was\npronounced in 1597 against M. Chamouillard for having so bewitched a\nyoung lady about to be married that her husband could not consummate the\nmarriage. But the most singular instance of the kind upon record is that\nof R. F. Vidal de la Porte, who was condemned by the judges of Riom to\nmake the _amende honorable_, and afterwards to be hung, and his lady to\nbe burnt until reduced to ashes for having by sorceries and wicked and\nsacrilegious words point-tied, not only the young men of his town, but\nalso all the dogs, cats and other domestic animals, so that the\npropagation of these species so useful to man was upon the point of\nbeing stopped. In 1718 the Parliament of Bordeaux ordered a famous\npoint-tier to be burnt. This pretended sorcerer had been accused and\nconvicted of having point-tied a nobleman of high family, his wife, and\nall the men and women servants in his establishment.\n\nIt must not be supposed that no counter-charms or amulets existed. The\nCurate Thiers, who has written at large upon this subject, enumerates\ntwenty-two different ones, the most potent of which were the following:\n\n1. To put salt in the pocket before proceeding to church; pennies marked\nwith the cross and put into the shoes of the bride and bridegroom were\nequally efficacious.\n\n2. To pass three times under the crucifix without bowing to it.\n\n3. For the bridegroom to wear upon the wedding day, two shirts, one\nturned inside out upon the other, and to hold, in the left hand, during\nthe nuptial ben\u00e9diction, a small wooden cross.\n\n4. To lay the new married couple naked upon the ground; to cause the\nbridegroom to kiss the great toe of the bride's left foot, and the bride\nthe great toe of the bridegroom's right foot: after which they must make\nthe sign of the cross with the left hand and repeat the same with the\nright or left hand.\n\n5. To take the bridegroom's point-hose and pass it through the wedding\nring: knot the said point, holding the fingers in the ring, and\nafterwards cut the knot saying, \"God loosens what the Devil fastens.\"\n\n6. When the new-married couple are about to retire for the night to\nfasten upon the thigh of each a little slip of paper, inscribed with\nthese words, _Domine, quis similis tibi?_\n\n7. To broach a cask of white wine from which none has yet been drawn,\nand pour the first of the liquor which flows, through the wedding ring.\n\n8. To rub with wolf's grease the door posts through which the married\ncouple pass on their way to the nuptial bed.\n\n9. To write upon virgin parchment before sunrise, and for nine days\nsuccessively, the word _Arigazartor_.\n\n10. To pronounce the word _Temon_ three times successively at sunrise,\nprovided the day promises to be fine.\n\nBut the mode of procedure in which the learned curate Thiers appears to\nplace the greatest confidence is that employed by a priest of his\nacquaintance. This person's plan was to tie the bride and bridegroom to\na pillar and administer to them with his own hand the stimulus with\nwhich the pedagogue awakens the genius of idle and sluggish pupils;\nafter this flagellation they are unbound and left together, amply\nprovided with such restorative and stimulants as are proper to maintain\nthe condition so favourable to Venus, in which he had placed them. The\nresult was in the highest degree satisfactory.\n\nBodin informs us that he knew at Bordeaux, a woman of middle age, but\nstill lively and fresh, who professed to cure radically all enchantments\nof this description. Nothing could be more natural than her _modus\noperandi_. She got into bed with her patients, and there by the\nresources of her amatory powers succeeded so well in arousing their\nflagged and sluggish desires that their domestic peace was never\nafterwards disturbed by the reproaches of their disappointed spouses.\nUpon her mother's death, the daughter embraced the same interesting\nprofession and in addition to acquiring considerable reputation by her\nsuccessful practise, realized a handsome fortune.\n\nRidiculous and contemptible as this quackery now appears, so great at\none time was its power, that persons every way qualified for the\ngenerative act, have been seen suddenly reduced to a humiliating\nnullity, in consequence of an impudent charlatan, a village sorcerer or\na fortune-teller having threatened them with point-tying. Saint Andr\u00e9, a\nFrench physician, gives an account of a poor weaver, who having\ndisappointed Madame Andr\u00e9 in not bringing home some work was threatened\nby that lady with being point-tied by her husband the doctor. The poor\nfellow was so alarmed that the charm had the same effect as a reality,\nnor was it until the work he had in hand was finished, and the lady had\nconsented to restore him to his natural state, that he could resume the\nexercises of his conjugal duties.\n\nVenette gives the case of one Pierre Buriel. \"This man,\" to use\nVenette's own words, \"was about thirty-five years of age, a cooper and\nbrandy manufacturer by trade. Being at work one day for my father in one\nof his country houses, he offended me by some impertinent observations,\nto punish which I told him the next day that I would point-tie him when\nhe married. It so happened that he had the intention of uniting himself\nwith a servant girl who lived in the neighbourhood, and although I had\nthreatened him merely in a jesting manner, it made so strong an\nimpression upon him that although, when married, he felt the most ardent\ndesire to enjoy his connubial rights, he found himself totally\nincapacitated for the work of love. Sometimes when he flattered himself\nwith being on the point of accomplishing his wishes, the idea of the\nwitchcraft obtruded itself, and rendered him for the time completely\nimpotent. This incapacity alienated the affections of his wife, and\nproduced on her part towards him the most repulsive coldness. I need not\nsay what gain I felt on witnessing these effects, how I regretted\nhaving, I may truly say, unintentionally caused so unpleasant a state of\nthings, and I did and said everything in my power to disabuse the man,\nand prove to him the folly of his impressions. But the more I did so,\nthe more he testified his abhorrence of me, and his conviction that I\nhad really bewitched him. At length the curate of Notre Dame, who had\nmarried them, interfered, and after some time succeeded, though with\nconsiderable difficulty, in freeing him from his imaginary bonds. They\nlived together for twenty-eight years, and several children, now\ncitizens of Rochelle, were the issue of their union.\"\n\nMontaigne gives us a curious story upon this subject, which he\nintroduces thus: \"I am not satisfied and make a very great question,\nwhether those pleasant ligatures with which the age of ours is so\nfettered--and there is almost no other talk--are not mere voluntary\nimpressions of apprehension and fear; for I know by experience, in the\ncase of a particular friend of mine, one for whom I can be as\nresponsible as for myself, and a man that cannot possibly fall under any\nmanner of suspicion of sufficiency, and as little of being enchanted,\nwho having heard a companion of his make a relation of an unusual\nfrigidity that surprised him at a very unseasonable time, being\nafterwards himself engaged upon the same account, the horror of the\nformer story so strangely possessed his imagination that he ran the same\nfortune the other had done; he from that time forward (the scurvy\nremembrance of his disaster running in his mind and tyrannizing over\nhim) was extremely subject to relapse into the same misfortune. He found\nsome remedy, however, for this inconvenience by himself frankly\nconfessing and declaring beforehand to the party with whom he was to\nhave to do, the subjection he lay under, and the infirmity he was\nsubject to; by which means the contention of his soul was, in some sort,\nappeased; and knowing that now some such misbehaviour was expected from\nhim, the restraint upon those faculties grew less, and he less suffered\nby it, and afterwards, at such times as he could be in no such\napprehension as not being about any such act (his thoughts being then\ndisengaged and free, and his body being in its true and natural state)\nby causing those parts to be handled and communicated to the knowledge\nof others, he was at last totally freed from that vexatious infirmity.\nAfter man has once done a woman right, he is never after in danger of\nmisbehaving himself with that person, unless upon the account of a\nmanifest and inexcusable weakness. Neither is this disaster to be feared\nbut in adventures where the soul is over-extended with desire or\nrespect, and especially where we meet with an unexpected opportunity\nthat requires a sudden and quick despatch; and in these cases, there is\nno possible means for a man always to defend himself from such a\nsurprise as shall put him damnably out of countenance. And yet I have\nknown some who have secured themselves for this misfortune by coming\nhalf-sated elsewhere, purposely to abate the ardour of their fury, and\nothers who being grown old, find themselves less impotent by being less\nable; and particularly one who found an advantage by being assured by a\nfriend of his that had a countercharm against certain enchantments that\nwould defend him from this disgrace. The story itself is not much amiss,\nand therefore you shall have it.--A count of a very great family, and\nwith whom I had the honour to be familiarly intimate, being married to a\nvery fair lady, who had formerly been pretended to and importunately\ncourted by one who was invited to and present at the wedding. All his\nfriends were in very great fear, but especially an old lady, his\nkinswoman, who had the ordering of the solemnity, and in whose house it\nwas kept, suspecting his rival would, in revenge, offer foul play, and\nprocure some of these kinds of sorceries to put a trick upon him, which\nfear she also communicated to me, who, to comfort her, bade her not\ntrouble herself, but rely upon my care to prevent or frustrate any such\ndesigns. Now, I had, by chance, about me, a certain flat piece of gold,\nwhereon were graven some celestial figures good to prevent frenzy\noccasioned by the heat of the sun, or for any pains of the head, being\napplied to the suture; where, that it might the better remain firm, it\nwas sewed to a ribbon, to be tied under the chin. A foppery\ncousin-german to this of which I am speaking was Jacques Pelletier who\nlived in the house, presented to me for a singular rarity and a thing of\nsovereign virtue. I had a fancy to make some use of this quack, and\ntherefore privately told the count that he might probably run the same\nfortune other bridegrooms had sometimes done, especially some persons\nbeing in the house who, no doubt, would be glad to do him such a\ncourtesy; but let him boldly go to rest, for I would do him the office\nof a friend, and if need were, would not spare a miracle that it was in\nmy power to do, provided he could engage to me, upon his honour, to keep\nit to himself, and only when they came to bring him his candle (a custom\nin France being to bring the bridegroom a candle in the middle of the\nnight, on his wedding night) if matters had not gone well with him, to\ngive such a sign, and leave the rest to me. Now, he had his ears so\nbattered and his mind so prepossessed with the eternal tattle of this\nbusiness, that when he came to it, he did really find himself tired with\nthe trouble of his imagination, and accordingly, at the time appointed,\ngave me the sign. Whereupon I whispered him in the ear, that he should\nrise under pretence of putting us out of the room, and after a jesting\nmanner, pull my night-gown from my shoulders, throw it over his own, and\nkeep it there till he had performed what I appointed him to do, which\nwas that when we were all gone out of the chamber, he should withdraw to\nmake water, should three times repeat such and such words and as often\ndo such and such actions; that at every of the three times be should tie\nthe ribbon I put into his hand about his middle, and be sure to place\nthe medal that was fastened to it (the figures in such a posture)\nexactly upon his reins; which being done, and having the last of the\nthree times so well girt and fastened the ribbon that it could neither\nuntie nor slip from its place, let him confidently return to his\nbusiness, and withal not to forget to spread my gown upon the bed so\nthat it might be sure to cover them both. These ridiculous circumstances\nare the main of the effect, our fancy being so far seduced as to believe\nthat so strange and uncouth formalities must of necessity proceed from\nsome abstruse science. Their inanity gives them reverence and weight.\nHowever, certain it is that my figures proved themselves more _Veneran_\nthan _Solar_, and the fair bride had no reason to complain.\"\n\nUpon a due consideration of this singular superstition, it must be\nobvious to any person of sense that these pretended ligatures are, in\nfact, the consequence of an enfeebled constitution, weak intellects, and\nsometimes of an ardent imagination, an over-excited desire which carries\nthe vitality to the head, and diverts it from its principal direction.\nDo away with these circumstances and imagine a man in full health, and\ngifted with a young and vigorous constitution, alike incapable of\nallowing himself to be acted upon by vain terrors, and of permitting his\npassions an uncontrolable course; and all the charms and incantation of\nthese redoubted point-tiers would immediately cease. Who, for instance,\ncould pretend to point-tie that hero of ancient Greece so famous for his\ntwelve labours, of which by far the most brilliant was the transforming,\nin the course of one night, fifty young virgins into as many women![67]\n\nThe most singular circumstance, however, connected with impotency is,\nthat for a long time there existed exclusively in France a particular\nkind of proof called--The Judicial Congress. In the old jurisprudence of\nthat country but little value was attached to moral proofs; all was made\nto depend upon material ones, which were made by witnesses. The whole\nenquiry after truth was made to depend upon the establishment of the\nfact, and, too frequently, the administrators of the law were not\nover-scrupulous as to the nature of the testimony by which it was to be\nproved. Provided there were such testimony, no matter of whatever kind,\nno matter how contradictory to common sense, justice pronounced itself\nsatisfied, for, relying upon this testimony it was enabled to pronounce\nits decision, and this was all it required. Hence all those personal\nexaminations of litigants, so often practised formerly, and hence the\njudge, whatever might be the nature of the suit or complaint, ordered a\nreport to be made by parties chosen to that effect, and who were called\n_experts_ or examiners. This mode of procedure was employed in cases in\nwhich a woman applied for a divorce from her husband on the ground of\nimpotency: hence arose the _Congr\u00e9s_, in which the justice of the\napplication was to be proved in the presence of examiners appointed to\ngive in a report upon the case to the court. \"Ce qui est encore plus\nhonteux,\" says a writer of the 17th century, \"c'est qu'un quelques\nproc\u00e9s, les hommes ont visit\u00e9 la femme, et au contraire, les femmes ont\n\u00e9t\u00e9 admises \u00e0 visiter l'homme, qui a \u00e9t\u00e9 cause d'une grande irrison et\nmoquerie, que telles proc\u00e9dures ont servi de contes joyeux et plaisans\ndiscours en beaucoup d'endroits.\"[68] The whole was a most disgusting\nprocedure, which, although greatly abused, was for a long time\nencouraged as offering a legal mode of dissolving a marriage which was\nincompatible with the happiness of both the parties, but which the law\ndeclared to be indissoluble. The judges who introduced or maintained the\nCongress, who, in fact, protected it, only contemplated it, but\ncertainly most erroneously as a proper means of legalizing divorces.\n\nAll historians, and other writers who have treated of this disgraceful\ninstitution, pretty generally agree in giving it an origin not further\nback than the commencement of the 16th century; it is, however, but the\nextension of a custom almost as obscene which prevailed in the first\nages of Christianity. This was nothing less than the subjecting a young\ngirl, whether nun or otherwise, accused of fornication, to a rigorous\npersonal examination, whence was to result the proof of her innocence or\nguilt. Siagrius, Bishop of Verona, and who lived towards the close of\nthe fourth century, condemned a nun to undergo this disgusting and\ninsulting examination. St. Ambroise, his metropolitan, disapproved of\nthe Bishop's sentence, declared the examination as indecent, thus\nattesting its existence. The opinion, however of this prelate, supposed\nas it was by that of several others, did not prevent the continuance of\nthis custom for a very long time. The ecclesiastical and civil tribunals\nfrequently directed this proof to be made; and Venette[69] cites the\nproc\u00e8s-verbal of a similar examination made by order of the Mayor of\nParis in 1672, in the case of a woman who complained of violence\ncommitted on her by a man of dissolute habits.\n\nWe prefer giving the following curious description of the manner of\nconducting the Congress in the original quaint and antiquated French:\n\n \"La forme duquel Congrez est, qui le iour et heure prins, et\n les Expers connenus ou nommez (qui sont ordinairement ceux\n m\u00eames qui ont fait la visitation lesquels partant n'ont\n garde de se contrarier ny de rapporte que l'homme y a fait\n l'intromission ayant desia (d\u00e9j\u00e0) rapport\u00e9 sa partie vierge\n et non corromp\u00fce) le juge prend le serment des parties,\n qu'elles tascheront de bonne foy et sans dissimulation\n d'acc\u014dplir l'\u0153uvre de mariage sans y apporter\n empeschement de part ny d'autre: des Expers qu'ils fer\u014dt\n fidelle rapport de ce qui se passera au Congrez; cela fait\n les parties et les expers se retirent en une ch\u0101bre pour ce\n pr\u00e9par\u00e9e, o\u00f9 l'homme et la femme sont de rechef visit\u00e9s,\n l'homme, afin de s\u00e7avoir s'il a point de mal, s'en estans\n trouu\u00e9 \u00e0 aucuns l'ayans gaign\u00e9 depuis avoir est\u00e9 visit\u00e9 qui\n n'ont laiss\u00e9 d'estre s\u00e9par\u00e9s encore, qu'il parust assez par\n l\u00e0 qu'ils n'estoient impuissans, la femme pour consid\u00e9rer\n l'estat de se partie honteuse et, par ce moyen cognoistre la\n difference de son ouverture et dilatation, auant et apr\u00e8s le\n Congrez, et si l'intromission y aura est\u00e9 faicte, ou non:\n sans, toutefois, parler en leur rapport de la virginit\u00e9 ou\n corruption de la femme, reput\u00e9e vierge, ayant vne fois\n est\u00e9 rapport\u00e9e telle, sans qu'on la visite plus pour cela.\n En quelques proc\u00e8s (comme en celuy de Bray, 1578) les\n parties sont visit\u00e9s nues depuis le sommet de la teste\n iusques \u00e0 la plante des pieds, en toutes les parties des\n leurs corps, _etiam in podice_, pour s\u00e7avior s'il n y a rien\n sur elles qui puissent auancer ou empescher le congrez, les\n parties honteuses de l'homme lav\u00e9es d'eau ti\u00e9de (c'est a\n s\u00e7avoir \u00e0 quelle fin) et la femme mise en demy bain, o\u00f9\n elle demeure quelque temps. Cela fait, l'homme et la\n femme se couchent en plein iour en un lict, Expers\n pr\u00e9sens, qui demeurent en la chambre, ou se retirent (si les\n parties le requi\u00e8rent on l'vne d'elles, en quelque\n garde-robe ou gallerie prochaine, l'huis (la porte)\n entreouvert toutefois, et quand aux matrones se tiennent\n proche du lict, et les rideaux estant tirez, c'est \u00e0 l'homme\n \u00e0 se mettre en devoir de faire preuve de sa puissance\n habitant charnellement avec sa partie et faisant\n intromission: ou souvent aduiennent des altercations\n honteuses et ridicules, l'homme se plaignant que sa partie\n ne le veut laisser faire et empesche l'intromission; elle le\n niant et disant qu'il veut mettre le doigt et la dilater, et\n ouvrir par ce moyen; de sorte qu'il faudroit qu'un homme\n fust sans apprehension et pire qu'aucunes b\u00eastes, ou que\n _mentula velut digito uteretur_, s'il ne desbandsit\n cependant au cas qu'il fust en estat, et si n\u014d obstant ces\n indignitez il passait autre iusques \u00e0 faire intromission;\n encore ne s\u00e7auroit il, quelque \u00e9rection qu'il face (fasse),\n si la partie veut l'empescher si on ne lui tenoit les mains\n et les genoux ce qui ne se fait pas. En fin, les parties\n ay\u0101s est\u00e9 quelque t\u0113ps au lict, comme une heure ou deux, les\n Espers appellex, ou de leur propre mouvement, quand ils\n s'ennuyent en ayant de subject, _si sint viri_,\n s'approchent, et ouvrans les rideaux, s'informent de ce qui\n s'est pass\u00e9 entre elles, et visitent la femme derechef,\n pour s\u00e7avoir si elle est plus ouverte et dilat\u00e9e que lorsqu'\n elle s'est mise au lict, et si intromission a \u00e9t\u00e9 faicte\n aussi, _an facta sit emission, ubi, quid et quale emissio_.\n Ce qui ne se fait pas sans bougie et lunettes \u00e0 gens qui\n s'en seruent pour leur vieil age, ni sans des recherches\n fort sales et odieuses: et font leur proc\u00e8s verbal de ce qui\n s'est pass\u00e9 au Congrez (ou pour mieux dire) de ce qu'ils\n veulent, qu'ils baillent au juge, estant au mesme logis vne\n salle, ou chambre \u00e0 part, avec les procureurs et patriciens,\n en cour d'Eglise, attendant la fin de cet acte lequel\n rapporte est tousiours (toujours) au desaduantage des hommes\n \u00e0 faute d'auoir fait intromission, sans laquelle, l'\u00e9rection\n _etiam sufficiens ad coeundem_, ny l'\u00e9mission n'empeschent\n la s\u00e9paration, comme il se voit par les proc\u00e8s verbaux des\n Congrez de De Bray des onziesme et vingt unsiesme d'Apuril,\n 1578. Auxquels Congrez, principalement au premier, il fit\n \u00e9rection rapport\u00e9e suffisante _ad copulem carnalem, et\n emisit extra vas, sed non intromisit_, et pour cela fut\n s\u00e9par\u00e9; laquelle intromission ne peust aussi estre faite au\n Congrez par quelque homme que ce fut, si la femme n'y\n preste consentement, et empesche, comme il est tout\n notaire.\"\n\nThe first judicial sentence which ordered a Congress is said to have\nbeen caused by the shameless effrontery of a young man who, being\naccused of impotency, demanded permission to exhibit proof of his powers\nbefore witnesses, which demand being complied with, the practice was\nintroduced into the jurisprudence of the country. But, as we have\nalready shown, the custom of the Judicial Congress may be referred to a\nfar earlier period, in fact, to the remotest times of the middle ages,\nand that it originated with the Church, when the public morals were far\nfrom being well ascertained, as is proved by many well-known privileges\nbelonging to the Seigneur or Lord of the Manor. Pope Gregory the Great,\nwho was raised to the Pontificate in 590, appears to have been the first\nwho conferred upon bishops the right of deciding this description of\nquestions. It was, doubtless, from considerations of tender regard for\nfemale modesty that the Church took upon itself the painful duty of\ninvestigating and deciding upon questions of this nature. Numerous\ninstances prove this, especially the dissolution of the marriage of\nAlphonso VI. of Portugal and his Consort, pronounced in 1688, and\nmentioned by Bayle.[70] The great antiquity of this custom is proved by\nthe 17th Art. of the Capitulars of Pepin, in the year 752, which bears a\ndirect allusion to it: inasmuch as that article established as a\nprinciple that the impotency of a husband should be considered as a\nlawful cause for divorce, and that the proof of such impotency should be\ngiven, and the fact verified at the foot of the Cross--_exeant ad\ncrucem, et si verum fuerit, separantur_.\n\nThat the Congress originated with the Church, who considered it as an\nefficacious means for deciding questions of impotency, is still further\nproved by the President Boutrier and by other writers, who assert that\nthe ecclesiastical judges of other times were alone empowered (to the\nexclusion of all secular ones) to take cognizance of cases of impotency.\n\nIt is well attested that during the 16th and 17th centuries all the\ncourts of law in France held the opinion that a marriage be anulled on\nthe demand of a wife who claimed the Congress.\n\nThe fatal blow to this disgusting custom was given by a decree of the\nParliament of Paris, under the presidency of the celebrated Lamoignon,\ndated Feb. 18, 1677, which decree forbids the practice by any other\ncourt whatsoever, ecclesiastical or civil. It is supposed that the\nridicule cast upon it by the following lines of Boileau had no small\nshare in causing its suppression.\n\n \"Jamais la biche en rut, n'a pour fait d'impuissance\n Train\u00e9 du fond des bois, un cerf \u00e0 l'audience;\n Et jamais juge, entre eux ordonnant le congr\u00e8s,\n De ce burlesque mot n'a sali ses arr\u00eats.\"[71]\n\nThree causes were alleged for the abolition of the Congress--its\nobscenity, its inutility, and its inconveniences. Its obscenity; for\nwhat could be more infamous, more contrary to public decency and to the\nreverence due to an oath than the impurity of the proof, both in its\npreparation and execution? Its inutility; for what could be less certain\nand more defective? Can it be, for one moment, imagined that a\nconjunction ordered by judges between two persons embittered by a\nlaw-suit, agitated with hate and fury against each other, can operate in\nthem? Experience has shown that, of ten men the most vigorous and\npowerful, hardly one was found that came out of this shameful combat\nwith success; it is equally certain that he who had unjustly suffered\ndissolution of his marriage, for not having given a proof of his\ncapacity in the infamous Congress, had given real and authentic\nevidences of it in a subsequent marriage. This degrading mode of proof,\nin short, far from discovering the truth, was but the cause and\nfoundation for impotence and falsehood. Its inconveniences; these\nare--the declared nullity of a legitimate marriage--the dishonour cast\nupon the husband, and the unjust damages, oftentimes exorbitant, which\nhe is condemned to pay--two marriages contracted upon the dissolution of\nthe first--both of which, according to purity and strictness, are\nequally unlawful--the error or the malice discovered, _ex post facto_,\nand, nevertheless, by the authority of the law, became irreparable.\n\nIt was in the power of the magistrate, upon a complaint of impotency\nbeing alleged by a wife against her husband, to order examiners to make\nan inspection of the husband's parts of generation, and upon their\nreport to decide whether there was just cause for a divorce; and this\nwithout proceeding to order the congress. The following are a few cases\nof this description, and are extracted from the reports and judgments of\nthe Officialty at Paris in cases of impotency.\n\nCase I. Jean de But, master fringe maker, was, in 1675, charged with\nimpotency by Genevieve Helena Marcault, his wife; he being inspected by\nRenauolot, a physician, and Le Bel, a surgeon, by order of the official;\nthey declared that, after a due and thorough examination of all the\nmembers and parts of the said De But, as well genital, as others which\nmight throw a light upon the case and likewise his condition of body,\nhis age, the just conformation and proportion of his limbs, but\nespecially his penis, which was found to be of as proper a thickness,\nlength and colour as could be wished: and likewise his testicles, which\nexhibited no perceptible viciousness or malformation, they are of\nopinion that from all these outward marks, which are the only ones they\nconsider themselves justified in judging from, the said De But is\ncapacitated to perform the matrimonial act. Signed by them at Paris,\nJuly 18, 1675, and attested by the Sieur de Combes. And on August 23,\n1675, by the sentence of M. Benjamin, official, the said Marcault was\nnon-suited and ordered to return to her husband and cohabit with him.\n\nCase II. Inspection having been ordered by the official of Paris of the\nbody of Joseph Le Page, who is taxed with impotency by Nicola de Loris,\nhis wife, the said inspection was made by Deuxivoi and De Farci,\nphysicians, and Paris and Du Fertre, surgeons; their report is as\nfollows:--\n\n \"We have found the exterior of his person to be like that of\n other men's, the penis of a good conformation and naturally\n situated, with the nut or glans bare, its adjoining parts\n fringed with soft, fine hair, the scrotum of an\n unexceptional thickness and extent, and in it vessels of\n good conformation and size, but terminating unequally; on\n the right side, they end in a small, flabby substance\n instead of a true testicle; and on the left side we observed\n a testicle fixed to the extremity of one of the vessels, as\n usual, invested in its tunicle, which left testicle we do\n not find to be at all flabby, but of a middling size: upon\n the whole, we are of opinion that the said Le Page is\n capable of the conjugal act but in a feeble manner. Signed\n and dated March 5, 1684. By the sentence of M. Cheron, the\n official, the said De Loris's petition is rejected, and she\n is enjoined to return to her husband.\"\n\nCase IV. Peter Damour being accused of impotency by his wife Louisa\nTillot an inspection was ordered to be made by Rainset and Afforti,\nphysicians, and Franchet and Colignon, surgeons. They report as\nfollows:--\"We have proceeded to inspect Peter Damour, master saddler at\nParis, and having attententively examined his parts of generation, we\nhave found them well constituted and in good condition as to their size,\nconformation and situation for the conjugal act; according, however to\nthe statement of the said Damour himself, the erection is imperfect, the\npenis not being sufficiently rigid for perforating the vagina; admitting\nthis, however, to be the case, we are of opinion that the imperfection\nmay be remedied, repaired, and rectified, in time, by proper remedies.\nSigned January 16, 1703.\" In consequence the official, M. Vivant, refused\nVillot's demand, and ordered her to go home to her husband and cohabit\nwith him as her lawful spouse.\n\nCase V. In the suit of Demoiselle Maris Louise Buch\u00e8res accusing of\nimpotence Antoine de Bret, an inspection was ordered and performed by\nVenage and Lita, physicians, Lombard and Delon, surgeons. They reported\nas follows: \"We find the string of the foreskin shorter than it should\nbe for giving the nut free scope to extend itself when turgid:--that the\nbody of the left testicle is very diminutive and decayed, its tunicle\nseparated, the spermatic vessels very much disordered by crooked swollen\nveins--that the right testicle is not of a due thickness, though thicker\nthan the other: that it is somewhat withered and the spermatic vessels\ndisordered by crooked swollen veins. On all which accounts we do not\nthink that the natural parts of the said Sieur de Bret have all the\ndisposition requisite for the well performing the functions they were\ndesigned for; yet we cannot say that he is impotent until we have\ninspected the wife. Paris July 11, 1703, Signed.\" On the 22d of July,\n1703, the wife was inspected by the said physicians and surgeons and by\ntwo matrons; the result of which was that they observed no visciousness\nof conformation in her womb: the valvula were circular and the caruncl\u00e6\nmyrtiformes, placed in the neck of the vagina, were soft, supple,\nflexible, entire, and did not seem to have suffered any violence or\ndisplacing, and the cavity of the womb-pipe was free and without any\nobstacle. Therefore they are of opinion that she is not capable of the\nconjugal act, and that there has been no intromission, consequently that\nshe is a virgin, and that if the marriage had not been consummated, it\nis her husband's fault, because of his great debility and defective\nconformation of his parts of generation. Another inspection of the same\nparties was ordered Aug. 1, 1703. Bourges and Thuillier being the\nphysicians, and Tranchet and Meri the surgeons, who declared that after\ndue and careful examination they had found no defect which could hinder\ngeneration. Their report is dated Paris, Aug. 13, 1703. M. Chapelier\nordered, in consequence, both parties,--viz., the Sieur De Bret and the\nsaid Buch\u00e8res to acknowledge each other for man and wife.\n\nCase VI. On the 2nd April, 1653, the Chevalier Ren\u00e9 de Cordovan, Marquis\nde Langey, aged 25 years, married Maria de Saint Simon de Courtomer\nbetween 13 and 14 years of age. The parties lived very happily for the\nfirst four years, that is to say, up to 1657, when the lady accused her\nhusband of impotency. The complaint was heard before the _Lieutenant\nCivil_ of the _Chatelet_, who appointed a jury to examine the parties.\nThe examination was made, and the report declared that both parties were\nduly and fully qualified for performing the conjugal act. In order to\ninvalidate this report the lady affirmed that if she was not a virgin it\nwas in consequence of the brutal efforts of one whose impotency rendered\nhim callous as to the means he employed to satisfy himself. The\nChevalier de Langey, much incensed at this imputation, demanded the\n_Congress_; the judge granted the petition, the wife appealed from the\nsentence, but it was confirmed by the superior courts.\n\nFor carrying the sentence into effect, the house of a person named\nTurpin, who kept baths, was chosen. Four physicians, five surgeons and\nfive matrons were present. It is impossible to enter into the details of\nthis disgusting prequisition; they are given in full detail in the\n_proc\u00e8s verbal_. Suffice it to say that the event being unfavourable to\nthe chevalier, his marriage was declared void by a decree of the 8th of\nFebruary, 1659.\n\nBy this decree the chevalier was not only condemned to pay back the\ndowry which he had had with his wife, but was prohibited from\ncontracting another marriage--the lady, on the contrary, was allowed to\nenter into any other engagement she might think fit, as being considered\nentirely freed from her former bonds.\n\nThe next day after this decree the chevalier made his protest against it\nbefore two notaries, declaring that he did not acknowledge himself to be\nimpotent, and that he would, in defiance of the prohibition imposed upon\nhim, enter into wedlock again whenever he pleased.\n\nThe lady St. Simon contracted a marriage with Peter de Caumont, Marquis\nde Bo\u00e8sle, and from this marriage were born three daughters. At the same\ntime the Chevalier de Langley married Diana de Montault de Navaille, and\ntheir marriage was followed by the birth of seven children.\n\nIn 1670 the Marchioness de Bo\u00e8sle, the ci-devant Countess de Langey,\ndied.\n\nIt was in consequence of the ulterior proceedings in the law courts\nrespecting the real paternity of the children of the marchioness that\nthe government availed itself of the opportunity of abolishing, as we\nhave seen, the useless and obscene ordeal of the congress.\n\nWe shall conclude the present Essay by transcribing Dr. Willick's\njudicious observations upon the sexual intercourse.\n\n _Of the_ SEXUAL INTERCOURSE _in particular; its physical\n consequences with respect to the Constitution of the\n Individual; under what circumstances it may be either\n conducive or detrimental to Health._\n\n A subject of such extensive importance, both to our\n physical and moral welfare, as the consequences resulting\n from either a too limited or extravagant intercourse between\n the sexes deserves the strictest enquiry, and the most\n serious attention of the philosopher.\n\n The inclination to this intercourse, and the evacuation\n connected with it, are no less inherent in human nature than\n other bodily functions. Yet, as the semen is the most subtle\n and spirituous part of the human frame, and as it\n contributes to the support of the nerves, this evacuation is\n by no means absolutely necessary; and it is besides attended\n with circumstances not common to any other. The emission of\n semen enfeebles the body more than the loss of twenty times\n the same quantity of blood; more than violent cathartics,\n emetics, &c.; hence excesses of this nature produce a\n debilitating effect on the whole nervous system, on both\n body and mind.\n\n It is founded on the observations of the ablest\n physiologists, that the greatest part of this refined fluid\n is re-absorbed and mixed with the blood, of which it\n constitutes the most rarified and volatile part; and that it\n imparts to the body singular sprightliness, vivacity, and\n vigour. These beneficial effects cannot be expected if the\n semen be wantonly and improvidently wasted. Besides the\n emission of it is accompanied with a peculiar species of\n tension and convulsion of the whole frame, which is always\n succeeded by relaxation. For the same reason, even\n libidinous thoughts, without any loss of semen, are\n debilitating, though in a less degree, by occasioning a\n propulsion of blood to the genitals.\n\n If this evacuation, however, took place only in a state of\n superfluity, and within proper bounds, it is not detrimental\n to health. Nature, indeed, spontaneously effects it in the\n most healthy individuals during sleep; and as long as we\n observe no difference in bodily and mental energy after\n such losses, there is no danger to be apprehended from them.\n It is well established and attested by the experience of\n eminent physicians, that certain indispositions, especially\n those of hypochondriasis and complete melancholy and\n incurable by any other means, have been happily removed in\n persons of both sexes, by exchanging a single state for\n wedlock.\n\n There are a variety of circumstances by which the physical\n propriety of the sexual intercourse is in general to be\n determined. It is conductive to the well being of the\n individual, if the laws of nature and society (not an\n extravagant or disordered imagination) induce man to satisfy\n this inclination, especially under the following conditions:\n\n 1. In young persons, that is, adults, or those of a middle\n age; as from the flexibility of their vessels, the strength\n of their muscles, and the abundance of their vital spirits,\n they can more easily sustain the loss thence occasioned.\n\n 2. In robust persons, who lose no more than is speedily\n replaced.\n\n 3. In sprightly individuals, and such as are particularly\n addicted to pleasure; for the stronger the natural and legal\n desire, the less hurtful is its gratification.\n\n 4. In married persons who are accustomed to it; for nature\n pursues a different path, according as she is habituated to\n the reabsorption or the evacuation of this fluid.\n\n 5. With a beloved object; as the power animating the nerves\n and muscular fibres is in proportion to the pleasure\n received.\n\n 6. After a sound sleep, because then the body is more\n energetic; it is provided with a new stock of vital spirit,\n and the fluids are duly prepared;--hence the early morning\n appears to be designed by nature for the exercise of this\n function; as the body is then most vigorous, and being\n unemployed in any other pursuit, its natural propensity to\n this is the greater; besides, at this time a few hours sleep\n will, in a considerable degree restore the expended powers.\n\n 7. With an empty stomach; for the office of digestion, so\n material to the attainment of bodily vigour, is then\n uninterrupted. Lastly.\n\n 8. In the vernal months; as nature at this season in\n particular, incites all the lower animals to sexual\n intercourse, as we are then most energetic and sprightly;\n and as the spring is not only the safest, but likewise the\n most proper time with respect to the consequences resulting\n from that intercourse. It is well ascertained by experience\n that children begotten in spring are of more solid fibres,\n and consequently more vigorous and robust, than those\n generated in the heat of summer or cold of winter.\n\n It may be collected from the following circumstances,\n whether or not the gratification of the sexual intercourse\n has been conducive to the well-being of the body; namely, if\n it be not succeeded by a peculiar lassitude; if the body do\n not feel heavy, and the mind averse to reflection, these are\n favourable symptoms, indicating that the various powers have\n sustained no essential loss, and that superfluous matter\n only has been evacuated.\n\n Farther, the healthy appearance of the urine in this case,\n as well as cheerfulness and vivacity of mind, also prove a\n proper action of the fluids, and sufficiently evince an\n unimpaired state of the animal functions, a due\n perspiration, and a free circulation of the blood.\n\n There are times, however, in which the gratification is the\n more pernicious to health, when it has been immoderate, and\n without the impulse of nature, but particularly in the\n following situations.\n\n 1. In all debilitated persons; as they do not possess\n sufficient vital spirits, and their strength after this\n venerating emission is consequently much exhausted. Their\n digestion necessarily suffers, perspiration is checked, and\n the body becomes languid and heavy.\n\n 2. In the aged; whose vital heat is diminished, whose frame\n is enfeebled by the most moderate enjoyment, and whose\n vigour, already reduced, suffers a still greater diminution\n from every loss that is accompanied with a violent\n convulsion of the whole body.\n\n 3. In persons not arrived at the age of maturity; by an easy\n intercourse with the other sex, they become enervated and\n emaciated, and inevitably shorten their lives.\n\n 4. In dry, choleric and thin persons; these, even at a\n mature age, should seldom indulge in this passion, as their\n bodies are already in want of moisture and pliability, both\n of which are much diminished by the sexual intercourse,\n while the bile is violently agitated, to the great injury of\n the whole animal frame. Lean persons generally are of a hot\n temperament; and the more heat there is in the body the\n greater will be the subsequent dryness. Hence, likewise, to\n persons in a state of intoxication, this intercourse is\n extremely pernicious; because in such a state the increased\n circulation of the blood towards the head may be attended\n with dangerous consequences, such as bursting of\n blood-vessels, apoplexy, etc. The plethoric are particularly\n exposed to these dangers.\n\n 5. Immediately after meals; as the powers requisite to the\n digestion of food are thus diverted, consequently the\n aliment remains too long unassimilated, and becomes\n burdensome to the stomach.\n\n 6. After violent exercise; in which case it is still more\n hurtful than in the preceding, where muscular strength was\n not consumed, but only required to the aid of another\n function. After bodily fatigue, on the contrary, the\n necessary energy is in a manner exhausted, so that every\n additional exertion of the body must be peculiarly\n injurious.\n\n 7. In the best of summer it is less to be indulged in than\n in spring and autumn; because the process of concoction and\n assimilation is effected less vigorously in summer than in\n the other seasons, and consequently the losses sustained are\n not so easily recovered. For a similar reason the sexual\n commerce is more debilitating, and the capacity for it\n sooner extinguished in hot than in temperate climates. The\n same remark is applicable to very warm temperature combined\n with moisture, which is extremely apt to debilitate the\n solid part. Hence hatters, dyers, bakers, brewers, and all\n those exposed to steam, generally have relaxed fibres.\n\n It is an unfavourable symptom if the rest after this\n intercourse be uneasy, which plainly indicates that more has\n been lost than could be repaired by sleep; but if, at the\n same time, it be productive of relaxation, so as to affect\n the insensible perspiration, it is a still stronger proof\n that it has been detrimental to the constitution.[72]\n\n\n\n\nESSAY III.\n\nAPHRODISIACS, OR, EROTIC STIMULI, AND\nTHEIR OPPOSITES, AS KNOWN TO, AND USED BY,\nTHE ANCIENTS AND MODERNS.\n\n\nWhen it is considered how strongly the sexual desire is implanted in\nman, and how much his self-love is interested in preserving or in\nrecovering the power of gratifying it, his endeavours to infuse fresh\nvigour into his organs when they are temporarily exhausted by\nover-indulgence, or debilitated by age cannot appear surprising.\n\nThis remark particularly applied to natives of southern and eastern\nclimes, with whom the erotic ardour makes itself more intensely felt;\nsince it is there that man's imagination, as burning as the sky beneath\nwhich he first drew breath, re-awakens desires his organs may have long\nlost the power of satisfying, and consequently it is there more\nespecially that, notwithstanding the continual disappointment of his\nhopes, he still pertinaciously persists in searching for means whereby\nto stimulate his appetite for sexual delights. Accordingly it will be\nfound that in the remotest ages, even the vegetable, animal, and\nmineral kingdoms have been ransacked for the purpose of discovering\nremedies capable of strengthening the genital apparatus, and exciting it\nto action.\n\nBut however eager men might be in the above enquiry, their helpmates\nwere equally desirous of finding a means whereby they might escape the\nreproach of barrenness,--a reproach than which none was more dreaded by\neastern women. Such means was at last discovered, or supposed to be so,\nin the mandrake,[73] a plant which thenceforth became, as the following\nquotation proves, of inestimable value in female eyes.\n\n \"And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found\n mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother,\n Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy\n son's mandrakes.\n\n \"And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast\n taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's\n mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with\n thee to-night for thy son's mandrakes.\n\n \"And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah\n went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me,\n for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he\n lay with her that night.\n\n \"And God harkened unto Leah, and she conceived and bare\n Jacob the fifth son.\"[74]\n\nThere is only one other passage in the Bible in which this plant is\nalluded to, and that is in Solomon's song:\n\n\"The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of\npleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my\nbeloved.\"[75]\n\nAll that can be gathered from the former of the above quotations is that\nthese plants were found in the fields during the wheat harvests and\nthat, either for their rarity, flavour, or, more probably, for their\nsupposed quality of removing barrenness in women, as well as for the\nstimulating powers attributed to them, were greatly valued by the female\nsex. In the quotation from Solomon's Song, the Hebrew word _Dudaim_\nexpresses some fruit or flowers exhaling a sweet and agreeable odour,\nand which were in great request among the male sex.[76]\n\nAccording to Calmet, the word _Dudaim_ may be properly deduced from\n_Dudim_ (pleasures of love); and the translators of the Septuagint and\nthe Vulgate render it by words equivalent to the English one--mandrake.\nThe word _Dudaim_ is rendered in our authorized version by the word\n_mandrake_--a translation sanctioned by the Septuagint, which, in this\nplace, translates _Dudaim_ by [Greek: m\u00eala mandragor\u00f4n],\n_mandrake_--apples, and in Solomon's Song by [Greek: oi mandraorai]\n(_mandrakes_). With this, Onkelos[77] and the Syrian version agree; and\nthis concurrence of authorities, with the fact that the mandrake\n(_atropa mandragora_) combines in itself all the circumstances and\ntraditions required for the Dudaim, has given to the current\ninterpretation, its present prevalence.\n\nPythagoras was the first (followed by Plutarch) who gave to this plant\nthe name of [Greek: anthr\u00f4pomorphos] (man-likeness), an appellation\nwhich became very generally used; but why he gave it is not precisely\nknown: Calmet, however, suggests as a reason the partial resemblance it\nbears to the human form, from the circumstance of its root being parted\nfrom the middle, downwards.\n\nThe opinion respecting the peculiar property of the mandrake was not\nconfined to the Jews, but was also entertained by the Greeks and Romans,\nthe former of whom called its fruit--love-apples, and bestowed the name\nof _Mandragorilis_ upon Venus. Dioscorides knew it by that of [Greek:\nMandragoras], and remarks that the root is supposed to be used in\nphilters or love-potions;[78] and another writer lauds it as exciting\nthe amorous propensity, remedying female sterility, facilitating\nconception and prolificness, adding the singular fact that female\nelephants, after eating its leaves, are seized with so irresistible a\ndesire for copulation, as to run eagerly, in every direction, in quest\nof the male.[79]\n\nSpeaking of the plant Eryngium, the elder Pliny says: \"The whole variety\nof the Eryngium known in our (the Latin) language as the _centum capita_\nhas some marvellous facts recorded of it. It is said to bear a striking\nlikeness to the organs of generation of either sex; it is rarely met\nwith, but if a root resembling the male organ of the human species be\nfound by a man, it will ensure him woman's love; hence it is that Phaon,\nthe Lesbian, was so passionately beloved of Sappho.\"[80] If it be true,\nas is asserted by medical writers, that the above root contains an\nessential oil of peculiarly stimulating qualities, the fact would\naccount, not only for Sappho's passion for Phaon, but also for the high\nvalue set upon it by the rival wives of Jacob.\n\nFor the same reason as that suggested by Calmet, Columella calls the\nmandrake _semihomo_:\n\n \"Quamvis _semihominis_ vesano gramine f\u0153ta\n Mandragor\u00e6 pariat flores.\"[81]\n\n \"Let it not vex thee if thy teeming field\n The half-man Mandrake's madd'ning seed should yield;\"\n\nand qualifies its seed by the epithet _vesanus_, because in his time\n(the first century after Christ) it was still supposed to form one of\nthe ingredients of philters or love-potions. The superstitious ideas\nattached to the mandrake were indeed so current throughout Europe during\nthe middle ages, that one of the accusations brought against the Knights\nTemplars was that of adoring, in Palestine, an idol to which was given\nthe name of Mandragora.[82] Even, comparatively, not very long ago,\nthere might be seen in many of the continental towns quacks and\nmountebanks exhibiting little rudely-carved figures, which they declared\nto be genuine mandrakes, assuring their gaping auditors, at the same\ntime, that they were produced from the urine of a gibbeted thief, and\nseriously warning those who might have to pull any out of the ground to\nstop their ears first, for otherwise the piercing shrieks of these\nplants would infallibly strike them with deafness. Wier thus describes\nthe manufacture of these interesting little gentlemen: \"Impostors carve\nupon these plants while yet green the male and female forms, inserting\nmillet or barley seeds in such parts as they desire the likeness of\nhuman hair to grow on; then, digging a hole in the ground, they place\nthe said plants therein, covering them with sand till such time as the\nlittle seeds have stricken root, which, it is said, would be perfectly\neffected within twenty days at furthest. After this, disinterring the\nplants, these impostors, with a sharp cutting knife, so dexterously\ncarve, pare, and slip the little filaments of the seeds as to make them\nresemble the hair which grows upon the various parts of the human\nbody.\"[83]\n\n\"I have seen,\" says the Abb\u00e9 Rosier, \"mandrakes tolerably well\nrepresenting the male and female parts of generation, a resemblance\nwhich they owe, almost entirely, to manual dexterity. For the intended\nobject, a mandrake is chosen having a strong root, which, at the end of\na few inches, bifurcates into two branches. As the root is soft, it\neasily takes the desired form, which it preserves on becoming dry.\"[84]\nThe author then describes the process of producing the resemblance of\nhuman hair, and which is similar to that given above.\n\nIn the year 1429, a Cordelier by name Brother Richard, fulminated from\nthe pulpit a vigorous sermon against the amulette then much in vogue,\nand called \"Mandragora.\" He convinced his auditors, both male and\nfemale, of its impiety and inutility, and caused hundreds of those\npretended charms which, upon that occasion, were voluntarily delivered\nup to him, to be publicly burnt. It is no doubt, to these mandragoras\nthat an old chronicler alludes in the following strophe:\n\n J'ai puis vu soudre en France\n Par grant d\u00e9rision,\n La racine et la branche\n De toute abusion.\n Chef de l'orgueil du monde\n Et de lubricit\u00e9;\n Femme o\u00f9 tel mal habonde\n Rend povre utilit\u00e9.[85]\n\nIn the 15th century the mandrake enjoyed in Italy so great a reputation\nas an erotic stimulant, that the celebrated Macchiavelli wrote a much\nadmired comedy upon it, called \"_La Mandragora_.\" The subject of this\npiece, according to Voltaire, who asserts \"qu'il vaut, peut \u00eatre mieux\nque toutes les pi\u00e8ces d'Aristophane, est un jeune homme adroit qui veut\ncoucher avec la femme de son voisin. Il engage, avec de l'argent, un\nmoine, un _Fa tutto_ ou un _Fa molto_, \u00e0 s\u00e9duire sa maitresse et \u00e0 faire\ntomber son mari dans un pi\u00e8ge ridicule. On se moque tout le long de la\npi\u00e8ce, de la religion que toute l'Europe professe, dont Rome est le\ncentre et dont le si\u00e8ge papal est le trone.\"[86]\n\nCallimaco, one of the dramatis-person\u00e6 of this comedy, thus eulogizes\nthe plant in question, \"Voi avete a intendere che non \u00e8 cosa pi\u00f9 certa a\ningravidare, _d'una pozione fatta di Mandragola_. Questa \u00e8 una cosi\nsperimentata da me due para di volte, e se non era questa, la Reina di\nFrancia sarebbe sterile, ed infinite altre principesse in quello\nStato.\"[87]\n\n\"You must know that nothing is so sure to make women conceive, as a\ndraught composed of Mandragola. That is a fact which I have verified\nupon four occasions, and had it not been for the virtues of this plant,\nthe queen of France, as well as many noble ladies of that kingdom, would\nhave proved barren.\"\n\nBy the Venetian law the administering of love-potions was accounted\nhighly criminal. Thus the law \"_Dei maleficii et herbarie_.\" Cap. XVI.\nof the code, entitled \"Della Commissione del maleficio\" says, \"Statuimo\netiamdio che se alcun homo o femina harra fatto maleficii, iguali so\ndimandono volgarmente _amatorie_, o veramente alcuni altri maleficii,\nche alcun homo o femina se havesson in odio, sia frusta et bollade, et\nche hara consigliato, patisca simile pena.\"[88]\n\nThe notion of the efficacy of love powders was also so prevalent in the\n15th century in our own country that in the Parliament summoned by King\nRichard III., on his usurping the throne, it was publicly urged as a\ncharge against Lady Grey, that she had bewitched King Edward IV. by\nstrange potions and amorous charms.\n\n \"And here also we considered how that the said pretended\n marriage betwixt the abovenamed King Edward and Elizabeth\n Grey, was made of great presumption, without the knowing and\n assent of the Lords of this land, and also by sorcery and\n witchcraft committed by the said Elizabeth and her mother\n Jaquet Duchesse of Bedford, as the common opinion of the\n people and the public voice and fame is thorow all this\n land.\" (From the \"Address of Parliament to the high and\n mightie Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.\")[89]\n\nModern writers, as might be expected, have taken a very wide range in\ntheir inquiries as to what kind of plant the Duda\u00efm really was, some\nregarding it as lilies, roses, violets, snowdrops, and jasmine; others,\nas melons, plantain fruits, whirtleberries, dwarf brambles, the berries\nof the physalis or winter cherry, grapes of some peculiar kinds, or even\nunderground fungi, as truffles, &c. Many have supposed the word to mean\nthe ingredients, whatever they might have been, of a charm or love\npotion, and hence have recurred to the mandrake, celebrated, as already\nsaid, throughout antiquity, for its supposed virtues, and whose history\nhas been tricked out with all the traditionary nonsense that might be\nimagined to confirm that report of such qualities.\n\nLiebentantz,[90] in 1660; the younger Rudbeck,[91] in 1733, and\nCelsius,[92] in 1745, have displayed much erudition and research in\ntheir inquiries; but the first of these writers arrived at the\nconclusion that nothing certain could be come to on the subject; while\nthe second proposed raspberries as the Duda\u00efm; and the third maintained\nthat they were the fruit of the Zizyphus, the Spina Christi of the\ndisciples of Linn\u00e6us.\n\nMaundrell, who travelled in the East in the 17th century, informs us\nthat, having asked the chief priest of Aleppo what sort of a plant or\nfruit the Duda\u00efm, or (as we translate it) the _mandrakes_, were which\nLeah gave to Rachel for the purchase of her husband's embraces, the\nholy man replied \"that they were plants of a large leaf bearing a\ncertain sort of fruit, in shape resembling an apple, growing ripe in\nharvest, but of an ill savour, and not wholesome. But the virtue of them\nwas to _help conception_, being laid under the genial bed. That the\nwomen were wont to apply it at this day, out of an opinion of its\nprolific virtue.\"[93]\n\nSome writers have supposed the Duda\u00efm to be neither more nor less than\nthe truffle. Virey asserts it to be a species of Orchis; and, indeed,\nconsidering the remarkable conformation of the root of this plant,[94]\nthe slightly spermatic odour of its farinaceous substance, as well as\nthat of the flowers of another one belonging to the same family, an\nodour so similar to the emanations of an animal proverbial for its\nsalaciousness, and to which its bearded spikes or ears give additional\nresemblance, the almost unbounded confidence which the ancients reposed\nin its aphrodisiacal virtues cannot appear surprising.\n\nOne of the most extraordinary aphrodisiacs upon record is that reported\nto have been employed by the Amazons. The \"Amazons,\" says\nEustathius,[95] \"broke either a leg or an arm of the captives they took\nin battle, and this they did, not only to prevent their attempts at\nescape, or their plotting, but also, and this more especially, to render\nthem more vigorous in the venereal conflict; for, as they themselves\nburnt away the right breast of their female children in order that the\nright arm might become stronger from receiving additional nutriment, so\nthey imagined that, similarly, the genital member would be strengthened\nby the deprivation of one of the extremities, whether a leg or an arm.\"\nHence, when reproached by the Scythians with the limping gait of her\nslaves, Queen Antianara replied, \"[Greek: arista ch\u00f4los oiphei],\" \"the\nlame best perform the act of love.\"\n\nAmong the ancient Romans, it was impossible that philters, or\nlove-potions, should not be introduced amid the general depravity so\ncommon in every class; and hence we meet with frequent allusions to them\nin their writers. Thus, the emperor Julian, surnamed the Apostate,\nwriting to his friend Callixines, observes \"At enim inquies, Penelopes\netiam amor et fides erga virum tempore cognita est. Et quis, tandem,\ninquam, in muliere amorem conjugis sui religioni ac pietati anteponet\n_quam continu\u00f2 mandragor\u00e6 bibesse judicitur_?\"[96]\n\n \"But you, Callixines, observe that Penelope's love to her\n husband was always thus manifested. To this I answer, who\n but he _that has habitually drunk Mandragora_ can prefer in\n a woman conjugal affection to piety?\"\n\nThe over excitement caused in the nervous system by such potions\nfrequently proved fatal. Such, according to Eusebius, was the fate of\nthe poet Lucretius, who, having been driven to madness by an amatory\npotion, and having, during the intervals of his insanity, composed\nseveral books, which were afterwards corrected by Cicero, died by his\nown hand, in the 44th year of his age.[97] It should, however, be\nremembered that this account has been questioned by the poet's\ntranslator and annotator, the late Mr. Mason Good, in these words:\n\n \"By whom the potion was administered is conjectured only\n from a passage in St. Jerome,[98] who says that a certain\n Lucilia killed her husband or her lover by giving him a\n philtre, which was intended to secure his love, but the\n effect of which was to make him insane. This Lucilia is\n supposed to have been the wife or the mistress of Lucretius,\n but by whom the supposition was first made, I am not able to\n discover.\"[99] Suetonius relates the same thing of Caius\n Caligula, who although, when he arrived at manhood, endured\n fatigue tolerably well, was still occasionally liable to\n faintness, owing to which he remained incapable of any\n effort. He was not insensible to this disorder of his mind,\n and sometimes had thoughts of retiring.[100] \"Creditum,\" he\n continues, \"potionatus a C\u00e6sonia uxore, amatorio quodam\n medicamento, sed quod furorem verterit.\"[101]\n\n \"It is thought that his wife C\u00e6sonia administered to him a\n love-potion, which threw him into a phrensy.\" It is in\n allusion to this that Juvenal writes\n\n \"Tamen hoc tolerabile, si non\n Et furere incipias, ut avunculus ille Neronis\n Cui totam tremuli frontem C\u00e6sonia pulli\n Infudit.\"[102]\n\n \"Some nimbler juice would make him foam and rave,\n Like that C\u00e6sonia to her Caius gave,\n Who, plucking from the forehead of the foal\n The mother's love, infused it in the bowl:\n The boiling blood ran hissing through his veins,\n Till the mad vapour mounted to his brains.\"\n\nThese concoctions were publicly sold at Rome, their ingredients\nconsisting of herbs of various kinds, in the culling and testing of\nwhich the shepherds were often employed. The remora, or sucking-fish,\ncertain bones of the frog, the astroit, or star-fish, and the hippomanes\nwere also used. Horace informs us that dried human marrow and liver were\nalso had recourse to:\n\n \"Exsucta uti medulla et aridum jecur\n Amoris esset poculum.\"[103]\n\n That his parch'd marrow might compose,\n Together with his liver dried, an amorous dose.\n\nDel Rio[104] and Wallick[105] assert that to the above were likewise\nadded nail-parings, sundry metals, reptiles, and the intestines of\nparticular birds and fishes, and even _semen virile_ and _sanguis\nmenstruus_.[106] During the concoction of these filthy, disgusting, and\nabominable compounds, the Infernal Deities were earnestly invoked.\n\nOf all the above ingredients the most famous was the hippomanes, which,\naccording to Wier, was a piece of flesh upon the forehead of a young\ncolt, of a black or brown colour, in size and shape like a fig, which\nthe mare is said to bite off as soon as she has foaled, the mare\nforsaking her offspring when prevented from so doing; hence the\nhippomanes, which was in reality nothing more than a caul or part of the\nomentum attached to the head of the foal, as it is also sometimes to\nthat of infants, was thought to be particularly effective in\nconciliating love, especially when calcined or reduced to powder, and\nswallowed in some of the blood of the person beloved. This superstition\nis, however, in some degree excusable, if it be considered that, even in\nthe present day, many persons in our own country firmly believe the\nhuman caul to have the power of saving its possessor from drowning; and\nthat in the good old times, it was regarded as a visible indication that\nProvidence had designed the infant so furnished for the service of\nreligion, such children, whether male or female, being destined, in\nconsequence, for the cloister.\n\nVirgil thus mentions it as one of the ingredients of the philter that\nDido caused to be made for her previously to her committing suicide:\n\n \"Falcibus et mess\u00e6 ad Lunam qu\u00e6runtur alienis\n Pubentes herb\u00e6, nigri cum lacte veneni.\n Qu\u00e6ritur _et nascentis equi in fronte revulsus_\n Et matri pr\u00e6ruptus amor.\"[107]\n\n \"Herbs are brought, by moonlight mow'd\n With brazen scythes, big, swol'n with milky juice\n Of curious poison, _and the fleshy knot\n Torn from the forehead of a new foal'd colt_\n To rob the mother's love.\"\n\nThe following curious account of the wonderful effects of the\nhippomanes, and which fully justifies the etymology of that\nword, is given by Pausanias:\n\n \"Among these (offerings) you may behold those of Phormis\n Menalius.... His gifts in Olympia are two horses and two\n charioteers, one of which horses the \u00c6lians assert to have\n been made by a magician, of brass, into which metal he had\n previously infused the _hippomanes_, and which, in\n consequence, possessed the power of exciting in horses a mad\n desire for coition. The horse so made by the magician was,\n both in size and shape inferior to many horses which are\n dedicated within Altis, and was rendered still more deformed\n by having no tail. Horses desire connection with this image\n not only in spring, but every day throughout the year, for,\n breaking their bridles or running away from their drivers,\n they rush into Altis and attack the horse in a manner much\n more furious than if it was the most beautiful mare, and one\n they were acquainted with. Their hoofs, indeed, slip from\n the side of the image, but nevertheless they never cease\n neighing vehemently and leaping furiously on the figure till\n they are driven off by the whip or by some other violent\n means, for till such methods are applied, it is impossible\n to disengage them from the brass.\"[108]\n\nMany formula for love-potions may be found in the work of\nAlbertus Magnus, who, among other things, particularly recommends\n\"the brains of a partridge calcined into powder and swallowed\nin red wine,\" a remedy which is also much insisted upon\nby Platina, who, in praising the flesh of the partridge, says,\n\"Perdicis caro bene ac facile concoquitur, multum in se nutrimenti\nhabet, cerebri vim auget, _genituram facilitat ac demortuam\nVenerem excitat_.\"[109]\n\n \"The flesh of the partridge, which is of good and easy\n digestion, is highly nutritious; it strengthens the brain,\n facilitates conception, and arouses the half-extinct desire\n for venereal pleasures.\" Mery[110] confidently prescribes,\n for the same purpose, the _partes genitales_ of a cock\n prepared and administered in like manner.\n\nThe following compositions enjoyed a vast reputation during the 17th\ncentury:\n\n FORTUNA VENERIS.--\"Take of pismires or ants (the biggest,\n having a sourish smell, are the best) two handfuls, spirits\n of wine one gallon; digeste them in a glasse vessel, close\n shut, for the space of a month, in which time they will be\n dissolved into a liquor; then distil them in balneo till all\n be dry. Then put the same quantity of ants as before; do\n this three times, then aromatize the spirit with cinnamon.\n Note, that upon the spirit will float an oil which must be\n separated. This spirit (continues the inventor) is of\n excellent use to stir up the animal spirits insomuch that\n John Casimire, Palsgrave of the Rhine, and Seyfrie of\n Collen, general against the Turks, did always drink thereof\n when they went to fight, to increase magnanimity and\n courage, which it did even to admiration.\"\n\n \"This spirit doth also _wonderfully irritate them that are\n slothful to venery_.\"[111]\n\n AQUA MAGNANIMITATIS.--Take of ants or pismires a handful of\n their eggs two hundred, of millepedes (wood-lice) two\n hundred, of bees two hundred and fifty; digeste them\n together, the space of a month, then pour off the clear\n spirit, and keep it safe. This water or spirit is of the\n same value as the former.[112]\n\nBut, quitting these \"fond conceits,\" as honest old Burton[113] calls\nthem, and investigating the subject upon acknowledged and recognised\nprinciples, it will be found that, as the ancient philosophers and\nnaturalists regarded the semen as the purest and most perfect part of\nour blood, the flower of our blood and a portion of the brain, so the\nsole object of all aphrodisiacal preparations should be to promote its\ncopious secretion.\n\nBefore, however, proceeding to indicate the means most conducive\nthereto, it may prove interesting to the reader to be informed what were\nthe opinions of some of the most celebrated philosophers of antiquity,\nupon the semen. \"Let us first,\" says Montaigne,[114] \"know whether, at\nleast, all they (physicians) agree about the matter whereof men produce\none another.... Archesilaus, the physician, whose favourite and disciple\nSocrates was, said that men and beasts were formed of a lacteous slime,\nexpressed by the heat of the earth. Pythagoras says that our seed is the\nfoam or cream of our better blood. Plato, that it is the distillation of\nthe marrow of the back-bones; and raises his argument from this: that\nthat part is first sensible of being weary of the work. Alcmeon, that it\nis a part of the substance of the brain, and that it is so, says he, is\nproved by its causing weakness of the eyes in those who are\nover-immoderately addicted to that exercise. Democritus, that it is a\nsubstance extracted from soul and body. Aristotle, an excrement drawn\nfrom the aliment of the last blood which is diffused over all our\nmembers; others, that it is a blood concocted and digested by the heat\nof the genitals.\"\n\nBut, to return from this digression. Under whatever point of view the\n_semen verile_ be considered, whether as containing, according to some\nphysicians, all the parts of the f\u0153tus, under the name of organic\nmolecules, or as being, in the opinion of others, merely destined to\nfecundate the female egg, it will be equally true that the semen is a\nfluid impregnated with a vivifying principle regarded as the most\nimportant (_validissimum_) of our humours, by Hippocrates, who, in\nsupport of this his opinion, adduces the fact of our becoming\ndebilitated, however small the quantity we may lose of it in the\nvenereal act.[115]\n\nZeno, the father of the Stoic philosophy, called the loss of semen the\nloss of part of the animating principle; and that sage's practice was\nconformable with his principles, for he is recorded to have embraced his\nwife but once in his life, and that out of mere courtesy.\n\nEpicuras and Democritus were nearly of the same opinion as Zeno; and the\nAthlet\u00e6, that their strength might be unimpaired, never married. The\nRabbis, in their anxiety to preserve their nation, are said to have\nordered, with a view of preventing a loss of vigour, that a peasant\nshould indulge but once a week, and a merchant but once a month, a\nsailor but twice a year, and a studious man but once in two years; and\nfor the same reason, Moses forbade indulgence before battle.\n\n \"Les \u00eatres,\" says a writer in the Dictionnaire des Sciences\n M\u00e9dicales,[116] \"qui font le plus abus de leurs facult\u00e9s\n intellectuelles et sensitives ext\u00e9rieures, sont les moins\n capables d'un co\u00eft fr\u00e9quent, tandis que les idiots, les\n cr\u00e9tins, l'exercent bien davantage. De m\u00eame, l'\u00e2ne, le\n cochon se livrent plus stupidement \u00e0 l'acte de propagation\n et repandent beaucoup plus de sperme que des esp\u00e8ces\n intelligentes; enfin les animaux \u00e0 petit cerveau, tels que\n les poissons, montrent une extr\u00eame f\u00e9condit\u00e9.\"\n\nIf now, it be asked what will best promote the secretion of the seminal\nfluid, or, in other words, which is the best aphrodisiac, it may be\nconfidently answered, the use of a substantial nourishment, such as\nmedical men designate as an analeptic diet. Food of this description,\nwithout fatiguing the gastric organs, furnishes an abundant chyle, from\nwhich is elaborated a rich blood, and in which the secretory organs find\nmaterials of an excellent quality, and in an almost constant proportion\nwith the regular consumption of their products. All food of easy and\nquick digestion is an analeptic, whence it follows that the same\nsubstance which is an analeptic to one person, may prove indigestible\nand innutritious for another. The numerous treatises upon digestion\nrender it unnecessary to specify here the different aliments most proper\nfor convalescents, suffice it to say, generally, that those meats in\nwhich azezome is found are the most nutritious. This animal principle is\nthat extractive matter of animal fibre which produces the red appearance\nof uncooked meat; it is also that which forms what is called the _brown_\nof roasted meats, gives the flavour to broths and soups, the peculiar\nsmell to boiled meat, and constitutes the much admired _gout_ of game\nand venison. It is not found in the flesh of young animals, which is\nsaid, with reason, to be, on that very account, less nutritious. It is\nonly when they have attained the adult age that it appears in them; it\nis abundant in beef, mutton, kid, hare, pigeon, partridge, pheasant,\nwoodcock, quail, duck, goose, and generally, in all animals having dark\ncoloured flesh. Mushrooms and oysters also contain some, but in a very\nsmall proportion.\n\nFood in which this principle exists appears to impress upon the membrane\nof the stomach an increase of activity; the digestion is easy, and from\na small mass of alimentary substance an abundant chyle is obtained. The\nchyliferous vessels derive a very great proportion of reparative\nmaterials; there is found but little excrementitious residue, the blood\nis enriched and its course accelerated, while the impulsive force of the\nheart and arteries is strong and more lively. Under the influence of\nthis regimen a greater quantity of heat is developed and, in a given\ntime, there is a greater absorption of oxygen than during a vegetable\none; the respiration is performed more freely, the organs increase in\nsize, but it is then a genuine embonpoint; nutrition is, in reality,\nmore active, it is not a deceptive turgidity; the energy of the\nsecretions and exhalations is redoubled, cutaneous perspiration becomes\nmore abundant, and the glandular apparatus fulfil their functions with\ngreater facility. A man who adopts this food becomes consequently very\nwell fitted to make the sacrifices exacted by the calls of love, to\nwhich he is then more frequently solicited.\n\nThe mollusca in general, and testaceous animals in particular, have\nbeen considered as endowed with aphrodisiac properties. Juvenal\nattributes this quality to oysters which, together with mussles, have in\nthis respect become vulgarly proverbial.\n\n \"Quis enim Venus ebria curat?\n Inguinis et capitis qu\u00e6 sint discrimina nescit\n Grandia qu\u00e6 mediis jam noctibus ostrea mordet.\"[117]\n\n \"For what cares the drunken dame?\n (Take head or tail), to her 'tis much the same\n Who at deep midnight on fat oysters sups.\"\n\nWallich informs us that the ladies of his time had recourse, on such\noccasions, to the brains of the mustela piscis. The Sepia octopus was\nalso in great repute, and Plautus, in his play of Cisina, introduces an\nold man who has just been purchasing some at the market.\n\nAppuleius, the celebrated author of the _Metamorphoseon de Asino aureo_\n(Metamorphoses of the Golden Ass), and who lived in the 2nd century,\nunder the Antonines, having married a rich widow, was accused by her\nfather \u00c6milian, before Claudius Maximus, pro-Consul of Asia, of having\nemployed sorcery and charms in order to gain her affections (a parallel\ncase with that of Shakspear's Othello). The love-potions alleged to have\nbeen administered were asserted to be chiefly composed of shell-fish,\nlobsters, sea hedge-hogs, spiced oysters, and cuttle-fish, the last of\nwhich was particularly famed for its stimulating qualities. Appuleius\nfulley exonerated himself in his admirable _Apologia ceu oratio de\nMagica_, so esteemed for the purity of its style as to have been\npronounced by Saint Augustine (De Civitate Dei, lib. xviii. c. 20) as\n_copiosissima et disertissima oratio_. The reason adduced by \u00c6milian for\nbelieving that Appuleius had chiefly used fish for the purpose was, that\nthey must necessarily have great efficacy in exciting women to venery,\ninasmuch as Venus herself was born of the sea.\n\nVenette[118] supports this view when he says:\n\n \"Nous avons l'exp\u00e9rience en France que ceux qui ne vivent\n presque que de coquillages et de poissons qui ne sont que de\n l'eau rassembl\u00e9e, sont plus ardents \u00e0 l'amour que les\n autres, en effet, nous nous y sentons bien plus y port\u00e9s _en\n Caresme qu'en tout autre saison parce-qu'en ce temps l\u00e0 nous\n ne nous nourrissons que de poissons et d'herbes qui sont\n des aliments compos\u00e9s de beaucoup d'eau._\"\n\nShould this be true, the Infallible (?) Church must have committed an\nastounding blunder in thinking to mortify, for six weeks, the sinful\nlusts and affections of its dupes, by confining them, for the above\nperiod, to the exclusive use of such articles of food.\n\nThere are also some aliments which, although not included in the class\nof analeptics, are, nevertheless, reported to possess specific\naphrodisiacal qualities; such are fish, truffles, and chocolate.\n\nThe following anecdote relative to this property in fish is related by\nHecquet:[119]\n\n \"Sultan Saladin, wishing to ascertain the extent of the\n continence of the dervishes, took two of them into his\n palace, and, during a certain space of time, had them fed\n upon the most succulent food. In a short time all traces of\n their self-inflicted severities were effaced, and their\n _embonpoint_ began to re-appear.\n\n \"In this state he gave them two Odalisques[120] of\n surpassing beauty, but all whose blandishments and\n allurements proved ineffectual, for the two holy men came\n forth from the ordeal as pure as the diamond of\n Bejapore.[121]\n\n \"The Sultan still kept them in his palace, and, to celebrate\n their triumph, caused them to live upon a diet equally\n _recherch\u00e9_, but consisting entirely of fish. A few days\n afterwards they were again subjected to the united powers of\n youth and beauty, but this time nature was too strong, and\n the too happy cenobites forgot, in the arms of\n voluptuousness, their vows of continence and chastity.\"\n\nThis peculiar property in fish has been attributed to the presence of\nphosphorus, which is known to exist somewhat plentifully in their\nsubstance, and has also been discovered in their roes in a simple state\nof combination. Now, phosphorus is one of the most powerful stimulants:\nit acts upon the generative organism in a manner to cause the most\nviolent priapisms; but this principle does not act alone, and there must\nalso be taken into account the different seasonings and condiments which\nform the basis of most culinary preparations to which fish are\nsubjected, and which are all taken from the class of irritants.\n\nThe prolific virtues of fish have, no doubt, been greatly exaggerated,\nand it is certain that too much importance has been given to the\nobservation made (rather upon slight grounds) by travellers as to the\nabundant population of ichthyophagic nations; nor would it be difficult\nto adduce facts to prove to the incredulous that the continuous use of\nfish excites lasciviousness in such persons only as are constitutionally\ninclined thereto.\n\nThe following instances sufficiently establish the aphrodisiacal\nqualities of phosphorus. A drake belonging to a chemist having drunk\nwater out of a copper vessel which had contained phosphorus, ceased not\ngallanting his females till he died. An old man to whom a few drops only\nof phosphoric ether had been administered, experienced repeated and\nimperious venereal wants which he was compelled to satisfy. Leroy and\nBattatz, two celebrated French physicians of the last century, tried the\neffects of phosphorus upon themselves, with similar results. Sensations\nof the same kind are said to be experienced by persons whose occupation\nrequires the frequent handling of this drug. It may thus be considered\nas satisfactorily proved that the above substance is essentially an\nenergetic stimulant of the genital organs; but, should still further\nevidence be required, it may be found in the fact that the\nadministration of it, even in small doses, has been productive of the\nmost horrible and fatal results, instances of which are recorded in many\nmedical works both foreign and English, but more particularly in those\nof Brera, Magendie, and others.\n\nThe erotic properties of truffles and mushrooms are considered by most\nwriters as better established than those of fish. The ancient Romans\nwere well acquainted with truffles, and obtained them from Greece and\nAfrica, especially from the province of Libya, the fungi found there\nbeing particularly esteemed for their delicacy and flavour. In modern\ntimes, also, the truffle is regarded as the _diamond_ of the kitchen,\nbeing highly valued for its capability of exciting the genesiac sense,\nit being a positive aphrodisiac which disposes men to be exacting and\nwomen complying.[122]\n\nThe following instance of its effects is given by Brillat Savarin,[123]\nto whom the circumstances were communicated, in confidence, by the lady\nwho was the subject of them:\n\n \"Je soupai,\" says she, \"un jour chez moi en trio avec mon\n mari et un de ses amis dont le nom \u00e9tait V----. C'\u00e9tait un\n beau gar\u00e7on et ne manquant pas d'esprit et venait souvent\n chez moi, mais il ne m'avait jamais rien dit qui put le\n faire regarder comme mon amant, et s'il me fesait la cour,\n c'\u00e9tait d'une mani\u00e8re si envelopp\u00e9e qu'il n'y avait qu'une\n sotte qui eut p\u00fb s'en f\u00e2cher. Il paraissait, ce jour l\u00e0,\n destin\u00e9 \u00e1 me tenir compagnie pendant le reste de la soir\u00e9e,\n car mon mari avait un rendezvous et devait nous quitter\n bient\u00f4t. Notre souper avait pour base une petite volaill\n truff\u00e9e. Les truffes \u00e9taient d\u00e9licieuses, et quoique je les\n aime beaucoup, je me contins, nonobstant; je ne bus aussi\n qu'un seul verre de Champagne, ayant quelque pressentiment\n que la soir\u00e9e ne se passerait pas sans \u00e9v\u00e8nement. Bient\u00f4t\n mon mari partit et me laissa seule avec V---- qu'il\n regardait comme tout \u00e0 fait sans consequence. La\n conversation roula d'abord sur des sujets indiff\u00e9rents, mais\n elle ne tarda pas \u00e0 prendre une tournure plus s\u00e9rieuse et\n plus int\u00e9ressante. V---- fut successivement flatteur,\n expansif, affectueux, caressant, et voyant que je ne faisais\n que plaisanter de tant de belles choses, il devint si\n pressant que je ne pus plus me tromper de ses pr\u00e9tensions.\n Alors, je me reveillai comme d'une songe et me d\u00e9fendis avec\n autant plus de franchise que mon c\u0153ur ne me disait rien\n pour lui. Il persistait avec une action que pouvait devenir\n tout \u00e0 fait offensante; j'eus beaucoup de peine de la\n remener, et j'avone, \u00e0 ma honte, que toute esp\u00e9rance ne lui\n serait pas interdite. Enfin, il me quitta, j'allai me\n coucher et dormis tout d'un somme. Mais le lendemain fut le\n jour du jugement; j'examinai ma conduite de la veille, et je\n la trouvai repr\u00e9hensible. J'aurais du arreter V---- d\u00e8s les\n premi\u00e8res phrases, et ne pas me pr\u00eater \u00e0 une conversation\n qui ne pr\u00e9sageait rien de bon. Ma fiert\u00e9 aurait d\u00fb sonner,\n crier, me f\u00e2cher, faire, enfin, tout ce que je ne fis pas.\n Que vous dirai je, Monsieur, je mis tout cela sur le compte\n des truffes, et je suis r\u00e9element persuad\u00e9e qu'elles\n m'avaient donne une pr\u00e9disposition dangereuse, et si je n'y\n renonce pas (ce qui eut \u00e9t\u00e9 trop rigoureux) du moins je n'en\n mange jamais sans que le plaisir qu'elles me causent ne soit\n m\u00eal\u00e9 d'un peu de defiance.\"\n\nThe mushroom was also equally well known as the truffle to the ancient\nRomans for its aphrodisiacal qualities. Thus, Martial says:\n\n \"Quum sit anus conjux et sint tibi mortua membra,\n Nil aliud _bulbis_ quam sater esse potes.\"[124]\n\n \"If envious age relax the nuptial knot,\n Thy food be mushrooms, and thy feast shalot.\"\n\nThis bulb was believed by the ancients to be so decided a stimulant,\nthat it was always served up, together with pepper and pine-nuts, at the\nwedding dinner.\n\nAn immoderate use of chocolate was, in the 17th century, considered so\npowerful an aphrodisiac that Jean Franco Raucher strenuously enforced\nthe necessity of forbidding the monks to drink it, adding that if such\nan interdiction had been laid upon it at an earlier period, the scandal\nwith which that sacred order had been assailed would have been\nprevented. It is a singular fact that, fearful of losing their\ncharacter, or, what, perhaps, was dearer to them, their chocolate, the\nworthy cenobites were so diligent in suppressing Raucher's work that\nfour copies only of it are said to be in existence.\n\nThe history of the middle ages abounds with complaints of the lubricity,\ngluttony, and drunkenness of the monks, vices which are described as\nbeing their ruin, in the fallowing pithy distich:\n\n \"Sunt tria nigrorum qu\u00e6 vestant res monachorum,\n Renes et venter et pocula sumpta frequenter.\"[125]\n\n \"Three things to ruin monks combine--\n Venery, gluttony, and wine.\"\n\nA monk who was a great enemy to adultery, was one day preaching against\nit, and grew so warm in his argument, and took so much pains to convince\nhis congregation of his own abhorrence of it, that at last he broke out\nin the following solemn declaration:\n\n \"Yea, my brethren, I had rather, for the good of my soul,\n have to do with ten maids every month, than, in ten years,\n to touch one married woman!\"\n\nThe celebrity they acquired in the field of Venus may readily be\nimagined from a quatrain that was affixed in a conspicuous part of the\nChurch of St. Hyacinthe, and which runs thus:\n\n \"Femmes qui d\u00e9sirez de devenir enceinte\n Addressez cy vos v\u0153ux au grand Saint Hyacinthe,\n Et tout ce que pour vous le Saint ne pourra faire\n _Les moines de c\u00e9ans pourront y satisfaire_.[126]\n\n \"You ladies who for pregnancy do wish\n To great St. Hyacinthe your prayers apply,\n And what his Saintship cannot accomplish\n _The monks within will surely satisfy_.\"\n\nIt would have been well had these holy men been contented with these,\ncomparatively, venial indulgences. The following macaronic epigram,\nhowever, shows that they were but too much addicted to the _Amour\nSocratique_:\n\n \"Let a friar of some order tecum pernoctare\n Either thy wife or thy daughter hic vult violare,\n Or thy son he will prefer, sicut fortem fortis,\n God give such a friar pain in Inferni portis.\"[127]\n\nBut the open violation of their monastic vows, especially that of\nchastity, sometimes subjected monks to very severe punishment, a\nsingular instance of which is recorded by Thevet,[128] who, on account\nof the inimitable quaintness of his language and style, must be allowed\nto tell his own story:\n\n \"Phillippus Bourgoin, gr\u0101d prieur de l'Abbaye de Cluny,\n voyant l'insolence, ribler\u00efes et putasseries que menoient\n certains religieux de l'abbaye de Cluny les fist appeller\n particuli\u00e8rement, leur demonstra le tort qu'ilz se faisoient\n et \u00e0 la sainctet\u00e9 de leur ordre, et appercevant qu'ilz\n continuoient leur train, en pleine voute ou assembl\u00e9e,\n qu'ils font en leur chapitre, leur denon\u00e7a, pu'est\u0101t en\n son oratoire Sainct Hugues s'estoit apparu \u00e0 luy, le\n chargeant de leur fair entendre qu'ilz amendassent leur vie,\n ou autrem\u0113t, qu'ilz tomberoient en son indignation,\n les ayant en telle verdeure envoya querir des maistres\n op\u00e9rateurs s\u00e9cretment en son logis et m\u0101da querir une\n nuict tous les plus mauvais gar\u00e7ons de Moynes, les uns apr\u00e8s\n les autres, qui n'estaient plut\u00f4t entrez au logis du Prieur\n qu'\u014d leur b\u0101doit les yeux, et apr\u00e8s _les maistres\n leurs nett\u00f2i\u00e9t bragardement_ leurs _petites boursettes_ de\n ce qui les faisoit hennir apr\u00e8s leurs volupt\u00e9z et apr\u00e8s les\n renvoiet en leurs chambres, _plus legiers de deux grains\n qu'ilz n'etoi\u00e9t auparavant, les ayant chapp\u00f4nez_. Apr\u00e8s\n telle ex\u00e9cution le bruict courut qu'\u014d avoit veu Sainct\n Hugues se pourm\u00eaant pr\u00e8s de l'enfermerie de l'abbaye, qui\n fist croire aux pauvres Moynes hongres, que par adresse\n autre qu'humaine, ils avoi\u00eat _ainsi est\u00e9 estropiez_ de leur\n virilit\u00e9.\"\n\nTo these poor monks may, however, be applied the sly remark of Hume,\nupon a similar act of cruelty perpetuated, though for a far more\ninnocent cause, by Geoffry, the father of Henry II., upon the prior and\nchapter of Seez in Normandy, viz., that \"of the pain and danger they\nmight justly complain, yet, since they had vowed chastity, he deprived\nthem of a superfluous treasure.\"[129]\n\nIf the properties of ambergris be less potent than those of phosphorus,\nthey are certainly less fatal. According to Boswell,[130] three grains\nof the former suffice to produce a marked acceleration of the pulse, a\nconsiderable development of muscular strength, a greater activity in the\nintellectual faculties, and a disposition to cheerfulness and venereal\ndesires. The same author also says that it is a medicine which can, for\na short time, restore an effete old man to juvenility.[131] The ancients\nreposed great confidence in the virtues of this drug, employing it as a\nrenovator of the vital powers and of the organs, whose energy had been\nexhausted by age or by excess; and throughout the East this perfume\nstill maintains a reputation for life-preserving qualities.\n\nMadame Du Barry,[132] the infamous mistress of Louis XV., is reported to\nhave availed herself of its aphrodisiacal qualities in order to\nstimulate the jaded appetites of her royal paramour. \"L'attachement du\nroi pour Madame Du Barry[133] lui est venu des efforts prodigieux\nqu'elle lui fit faire au moyen d'un bapt\u00eame (lavement) ambr\u00e9 dont elle\nse parfuma int\u00e9rieurement tous les jours. On ajoute qu'elle joignit \u00e0\ncela un secret dont on ne se sert pas encore en bonne soci\u00e9t\u00e9.\"\n\nPiquant as is this anecdote, the key to it is equally so. \"Les mouches\ncantarides, i diabolini l'essence de girofl\u00e9e, les bapt\u00eames ambr\u00e9s,\netc., sont des inventions de notre siecle dont la d\u00e9bilit\u00e9 eut \u00e9t\u00e9\nincurable sans ces secours, l'auteur ne peut rendre le _secret de la\nmauvaise soci\u00e9t\u00e9_, dont se sert la Comtesse, sans blesser la bonne, tout\nce qu'il peut dire d\u00e9cemment est que ce secret est un diminutif des\nerreurs philosophiques.\"[134]\n\nThe old pharmacop\u0153ia are amply furnished with formula of which\namber constitutes the base. These recipes are generally designated by\nnames which, to a certain extent, indicate the particular use to which\nthey are destined by their makers; thus, France formerly boasted her\n\"_Tablettes de Magnanimit\u00e9_,\" or \"_Electuaire Satyrion_,\" and \"_Un\npoudre de joie_.\" Troches, or odoriferous lozenges, to which the\nancients gave the pretty name of \"_Avuncul\u00e6 Cypri\u00e6_,\" were, and perhaps\nare still, sold in Paris under that of \"_Seraglio Pastilles_.\" Ambergris\nforms the basis of these, as it also does of the Indian pastilles called\n\"Cachunde,\" and which were equally in repute. Zactus Lusitanus[135]\nstates that they were composed of bole Tuccinum, musk, ambergris,\naloes-wood, red and yellow sanders (pterocarpus santalinus) mastic,\nsweet-flag (calamus aromaticus) galanga, cinnamon, rhubarb, Indian\nmyrobalon, absynth, and of some pounded precious stones, which, however,\nimpart no additional quality to the composition. Speaking of this\ncomposition, the Encyclop\u0153dia Perthensis describes it as \"a medicine\nhighly celebrated among the Chinese and Indians; it is composed of\nambergris and several other aromatic ingredients, perfumes, medicinal\nearths, and precious stones. It imparts a sweetness to the breath, is a\nvaluable medicine in all nervous complaints, and is esteemed as a\nprolonger of life and _an exciter to venery_.\"[136]\n\nRivi\u00e8re[137] gives us the following formula for a potion whose virtue is\nindisputable. \"Take of amber, half a drachm; musk, two scruples; aloes,\none drachm and a half; pound them all together, pour upon the mass a\nsufficient quantity of spirits of wine so that the liquor may cover it\nto the height of about five fingers' breadth; expose it to sand heat,\nfilter and distil it, close it hermetically, and administer it in broth\nin the dose of three or five drops. This liquor is also advantageous\nwhen mixed with syrup, prepared as follows:--Take of cinnamon water,\nfour ounces; orange and rose water, each six ounces, and sugar candy\nq.s.\n\nMusk taken internally is said by many physicians to be almost equal to\nambergris for its aphrodisiacal qualities. Externally applied, this\nsubstance produces very singular phenomena. Borelli details the case of\na man \"qui s'\u00e9tant frott\u00e9 le penis avec du musc avant de se livrer \u00e0\nl'exercise des fonctions genitales, resta uni avec sa femme sans pouvoir\ns'en s\u00e9parer. Il fallait, dans cette position lui donner une quantit\u00e9\nde lavements afin de ramoller les parties qui s'\u00e9taient\nextraordinairement tumifi\u00e9es.\"[138] Diermerbreek and Schurigius gave\nsimilar instances. The effects of musk are, therefore, almost equal to\nthose produced by certain plants, as recorded by Theophrastus: \"Esse\nherbas qu\u00e6 vel ad _sexagesimum coitum_ vim pr\u00e6stant sed at demum\nsecernitur sanguis.\"[139] Weickard says that by means of this drug he\nresuscitated the genital power in a man who had nearly completed his\neightieth year.\n\nBut, of all aphrodisiacs, the most certain and terrible in its effects\nare cantharides, commonly known as Spanish flies. That they exercise a\npowerful and energetic action upon the organization and stimulate, to\nthe utmost, the venereal desire, is but too true. The effects, however,\nwhich these insects, when applied as a blister upon the skin, are known\nto produce, are insignificant when compared with their intense action\nupon the stomach when taken internally; nor is it the stomach only which\nis affected by them: the bladder experiences an irritation exceeding\neven that caused by the severest strangury. To these succeed perforation\nof the stomach, ulcers throughout the entire length of the intestinal\ncanal, dysentery, and, lastly, death in the midst of intolerable\nagonies. Medical works abound with observations concerning the fatal\neffects of cantharides when unduly administered, whether from ignorance\nor for exciting the venereal appetite. The two following cases are\nrecorded by Pabrol in his \"Observations Anatomiques\":\n\n \"En 1752 nous fumes visiter un pauvre homme d'Organ en\n Provence atteint du plus horrible satyriasis qu'on saurait\n voir et penser. Le fait est tel. Il avait les quartes, pour\n en gu\u00e9rir prend conseil d'une sorci\u00e8re, laquelle lui fait\n une potion d'une once de semences d'orties, de deux drachmes\n de cantharides, d'une drachme et demi de caboule et autres,\n ce qui le rendit si furieux \u00e0 l'acte v\u00e9n\u00e9rien que sa femme\n nous jura son Dieu, _qu'il l'avait chevauch\u00e9e, dans deux\n mois, quatre vingt sept fois, sans y comprendre plus de dix\n fois qu'il s'\u00e9tait_ corrompu lui-m\u00eame. Dans le temps que\n nous consultions, le pauvre homme spermatisa trois fois \u00e0\n notre pr\u00e9sence, embrassa le pied du lit, et agitant contre\n lui comme si c'eust \u00e9t\u00e9 sa femme. Ce spectacle nous \u00e9tonn et\n nous h\u00e2t\u00e2 \u00e0 lui faire des rem\u00e8des pour abattre cette\n furieusse chaleur, mais quel rem\u00e8de qu'on lui eust faire, se\n passa-t-il le pas.\"\n\n \"Un m\u00e9decin \u00e0 Orange, nomm\u00e9 Chauvel avait \u00e9t\u00e9 appell\u00e9 en\n 1758 \u00e0 Caderousse, petite ville proche de sa r\u00e9sidence, pour\n voir un homme atteint d'une maladie du m\u00eame genre. A\n l'entr\u00e9e de la maison il trouve la femme du dit malade,\n laquelle se plaignit \u00e0 lui de la furieuse lubricit\u00e9 de son\n mari, _qui l'avait chevauch\u00e9e quarante fois pour une nuit_,\n et avait toutes les parties gonfl\u00e9es, \u00e9tant contrainte les\n lui montrer afin qu'il lui ordonnast les rem\u00e8des pour\n abattre l'inflammation. Le mal du mari \u00e9tant venu d'un\n breuvage semblable \u00e0 l'autre que lui fut donn\u00e9 par une femme\n qui gardait l'h\u00f4pital, pour gu\u00e9rir la fi\u00e8vre tierce qui\n l'affligeoit, de laquelle il tomba dans une telle fureur\n qu'il fallait l'attacher comme s'il eust \u00e9t\u00e9 poss\u00e9d\u00e9 du\n diable. Le vicaire du lieu fut pr\u00e9sent, pour l'exhorter \u00e0 la\n pr\u00e9sence m\u00eame du Sieur Chauvel, lesquels il priait le\n laisser mourir avec le plaisir, les femmes le pli\u00e8rent dans\n un linsseuil mouill\u00e9 en eau et en vinaigre, o\u00f9 il fut lass\u00e9\n jusqu'au le lendemain qu'elles allaient le visiter, mais sa\n furieuse chaleur fut bien abattue et eteinte, car elles le\n trouv\u00e8rent roid mort, la bouche b\u00e9ante, montrant les dents,\n et son membre gangr\u00e9ne.\"\n\nPar\u00e9 also relates that a courtezan, having sprinkled the meat given by\nher to one of her lovers, with pounded cantharides, the wretched youth\nwas seized with a violent priapism and loss of blood at the anus, of\nwhich he died.\n\nFerdinand the Catholic, of Castile, owed his death to the effects of a\nphilter administered to him by his queen, Germaine de Foix, in the hope\nof enabling him to beget an heir to the crowns of Aragon, Navarre, and\nNaples. \"Plusieurs dames,\" says Mignot,[140] \"attach\u00e9es \u00e0 la Reine, lui\nindiqu\u00e8rent un breuvage qu'il fallait, disoit on donner \u00e0 Ferdinand pour\nranimer ses forces. Cette princese fit composer ce rem\u00e9de, sous ses\nyeux, et le pr\u00e9senta au roi qui d\u00e9sirait, plus qu'elle, d'avoir un fils.\nDepuis ce jour, la sant\u00e9 de Ferdinand s'affaiblit, au point qu'il ne la\nrecouvra jamais.\"\n\nThe life of the celebrated Wallenstein, one of the heroes of the \"Thirty\nYears' war,\" was far a long time endangered from the effects of a potion\nadministered to him by his countess. \"De retour dans sa patrie, il\n(Wallenstein) sut inspirer une vive passion \u00e0 une riche veuve de la\nfamille de Wiezkova, et eut l'adresse de se faire pr\u00e9f\u00e9r\u00e9 \u00e0 des rivaux\nd'un rang plus \u00e9lev\u00e9; mais cette union fut troubl\u00e9e par l'extr\u00eame\njalousie de sa femme; ou pr\u00e9tend m\u00eame qu'elle fit usage de philtres que\npens\u00e8rent compromettre le sant\u00e9 de son mari.\"[141]\n\nCardinal Dubois,[142] the favourite and minister of Philip Duke of\nOrleans, Regent of France, during the minority of Louis XV., gives the\nfollowing amusing account of a love potion, to the powerful effects of\nwhich he considered himself indebted for his existence. \"An old\nbachelor, of Brivas, had engaged to marry a young lady of only sixteen\nyears of age. The night before the wedding he assembled the wise heads\nof his family for the purpose of consulting upon the best means of\nenabling him to perform his part creditably in the approaching amorous\nconflict. Opinions were divided; some maintained that nature was\nadequate to the occasion at any age, while others recommended a certain\npreparation in the Pharmacopeia, which would amply supply the defect of\nyouth in a sexaginary husband. The old gentleman chose, without\nhesitation, the surest and speediest of these two chances of success.\nThe prescription was sent to the shop of my worthy father, who was an\napothecary in the town, and he accordingly immediately set to work, and\nmade up a draught which would have awakened desire even in Methusaleh\nhimself. This valuable philter was not to be sent to the party till the\nnext day. It was late, and my mother,\" continues the Cardinal, \"desired\nher husband to retire to rest and he, tired with his day's work, quickly\nundressed himself, blew out his candle, and deposited himself, like a\nloving husband, by the side of his dear spouse. Awakening in the middle\nof the night, he complained of being excessively thirsty, and his better\nhalf, roused from her slumbers, got up in the dark, and groping about\nfor something wherewith to quench his thirst, her hand encountered the\ninvigorating philter, which it truly proved to be, for I came into the\nworld precisely nine months after that memorable night.\"[143]\n\nAlthough love-potions and philters, as well as the other preparations\nhad recourse to, for animating and arousing the organs for reproduction\nfrequently owe, as we have shewn, their advantages to cantharides, and\nare, but too often productive of terrible effects, yet it cannot be\ndenied that when administered by a skilful, cautious, and experienced\nphysician, they have restored the desired vigour when all other means\nhave failed.\n\nThe flesh of the Schinck (scincus), an amphibious animal of the lizard\nspecies, and sometimes of the land lizard, or crocodile, is said, when\nreduced to powder and drunk with sweet wine, to act miraculously in\nexciting the venereal action; it is also prepared for the same object in\nthe form of the electuary known by the name of Diasatyrion. \u00c6lius\nrecommends that in order to cause the erection of the virile organ, the\nflesh of this animal should be taken from the vicinity of its genital\napparatus.[144] It is a well known fact that the Egyptian peasants\ncarried their lizards to Cairo, whence they were forwarded, _vi\u00e2_\nAlexandria, to Venice and Marseilles. This species of lizard, which\nfeeds upon aromatic plants, was also used as an aphrodisiac by the\nArabs, and the well known anti-poisonous quality of its flesh had caused\nit, in more ancient times, to be employed as an ingredient in the\nfar-famed Mithridates, or antidote to poison. Browne informs us[145]\n\"that in Africa, no part of the Materia Medica is so much in requisition\nas those which stimulate to venereal pleasure. The _Lacerta scincus_ in\npowder, and a thousand other articles of the same kind, are in continual\ndemand.\" The plant Chervri (_sandix ceropolium_) is also accounted as\ncapable of exciting amorous propensities, so much so that Tiberius, the\nRoman emperor, the most lascivious, perhaps, of men, is said to have\nexacted a certain quantity of it from the Germans, by way of tribute,\nfor the purpose of rendering himself vigorous with his women and\ncatamites; and Venette says that the Swedish ladies give it to their\nhusbands when they find them flag in their matrimonial duties.[146]\n\nBut it was upon the plant called Satyrion (_orchis mascula_) that those\nwho required aphrodisiacal remedies rested their most sanguine hopes.\nThis plant, Theophrastus assures us, possesses so wonderful a property\nof exciting venery that a mere application of it to the parts of\ngeneration will enable a man to accomplish the act of love twelve times\nsuccessively. Speaking of this plant, Venette[147] says that the herb\nwhich the Indian King Androphyl sent to King Antiochus was that it was\nso efficacious in exciting men to amorous enjoyment as to surpass in\nthat quality, all other plants, the Indian who was the bearer of it\nassuring the king \"qu'elle lui avait donn\u00e9 de la vigueur pour soixante\ndix embrassements,\" but he owned \"qu'aux derniers efforts ce qu'il\nrendait n'\u00e9tait plus de semence.\"\n\nMatthoile, however, observing that those persons who made use of it did\nnot appear much given to lasciviousness, concluded that we had lost the\ntrue satyrion of the ancients; but, it is nevertheless certain,\nnotwithstanding so adverse an opinion, that this plant long preserved\nits reputation, and was recommended by all botanists for its aphrodisiac\npotency. Of all the species of this plant the one popularly known as\ndog-stones is reputed to possess the greatest virtue.\n\nThe Turks have also their Satyrion (_orchis morio_), which grows upon\nthe mountains near Constantinople, and which they make use of to repair\ntheir strength, and stimulate them to the generative act. From this root\nis made the salep of which the inhabitants of Turkey, Persia, and Syria,\nare extremely fond, being looked upon as one of the greatest\nrestoratives and provocatives to venery in the whole vegetable world.\nBut besides the aphrodisiacal qualities attributed to this plant by the\nabove people, they give it credit for other ones, which good opinion\nexperience has confirmed, and therefore whenever they undertake a long\nvoyage, they never omit to carry it with them as a specific against all\ndiseases. Modern practitioners likewise commend its restorative,\nmucilaginous and demulcent qualities as rendering it of considerable\nutility, particularly in sea scurvy, diarrh\u0153a, dysentery, and stone\nor gravel. In addition to this property, salep also possesses the very\nsingular one of concealing the taste of sea water, hence to prevent the\ndreadful calamity of perishing by thirst at sea it has been proposed\nthat the powder of this plant should form part of the provisions of\nevery ship's company.\n\nBorax is likewise considered to possess peculiar aphrodisiacal\nqualities. \"Il p\u00e9n\u00e8tre,\" says Venette, \"toutes les parties de notre\ncorps et ouvre tous les vaisseaux, et par la t\u00e9nuit\u00e9 de sa substance,\n_il conduit aux parties g\u00e9nitales_ tout ce qui est capable de nous\nservir de mati\u00e8re \u00e0 la semence.\"[148]\n\nThe plant Rocket (_Brasica eruca_) has likewise been especially\ncelebrated by the ancient poets for possessing the virtue of restoring\nvigour to the sexual organs, on which account it was consecrated to and\nsown around, the statue of Priapus; thus Columella says:--\n\n \"Et qu\u00e6 frugifero seritur vicina Priapo\n Excitet ut veneri tardos eruca maritos.\"[149]\n\n \"Th' eruca, Priapus, near thee we sow\n To rouse to duty husbands who are slow.\"\n\nVirgil attributes to it the same quality, designing it as--\n\n \"... Et venerem revocans eruca morantem.\"[150]\n\n \"Th'eruca, plant which gives to jaded appetite the spur.\"\n\nLobel[151] gives an amusing account of the effects of this plant upon\ncertain monks in the garden of whose monastery it was sown, an infusion\nof it being daily doled out to them under the impression that its\ncheering and exhilarating qualities would rouse them from the state of\ninactivity and sluggishness so common to the inmates of such\nestablishments. But, alas! the continual use of it produced an effect\nfar more powerful than had been contemplated by the worthy itinerant\nmonk who had recommended it, for the poor cenobites were so stimulated\nby its aphrodisiacal virtues that, transgressing alike their monastic\nwall and vows, they sought relief for their amorous desires in the fond\nembraces of the women residing in the neighbourhood.\n\nSalt, mala Bacchica[152] Cubebs, Surag,[153] and radix Chin\u00e6 (bark),\nwere also regarded by ancient physicians as powerful aphrodisiacs.\nGomez[154] asserts of the first of these substances, that women who much\nindulge in it are thereby rendered more salacious, and that, for this\nreason, Venus is said to have arisen from the sea; whence the epigram:\n\n \"Unde tot in Veneta scortorum millia cur sunt?\n In promptu causa est. Venus orta mari.\"\n\n \"In Venice why so many punks abound?\n The reason sure is easy to be found:\n Because, as learned sages all agree,\n Fair Venus' birth-place was the _salt, salt sea_.\"\n\nTo the last of the above-mentioned plants, Baptista Porta ascribes the\nmost wonderful powers, his words being: Planta qu\u00e6 non solum edentibus,\nsed et genitale languentibus tantum valet, ut coire summe desiderant,\nquoties fere velint, possint; alios _duodecies_ profecisse, alios ad\n_sexaginta vices_ pervenisse, refert.[155]\n\nCertain condiments are also aphrodisiacal, acting as they undoubtedly\ndo, as powerful stimulants. Thus Tourtelle and Peyrible assure us that\npepper is a provocative to venereal pleasures, while Gesner and Chappel\ncured an atony of the virile member of three or four years' duration, by\nrepeated immersions of that organ in a strong infusion of mustard seed.\n\nThe principal ingredient of the _Bang_ so much used by the Indians, as\nwell as of the _Maslac_ of the Turks is a species of the hemp plant. The\nIndians, says Acosta,[156] masticate the seeds and leaves of several\nspecies of that plant, in order to increase their vigour in the venereal\ncongress, and very frequently combine with it, ambergris, musk, and\nsugar, preparing it in the form of an electuary. It has been remarked,\nmoreover, that even in our own climate, the caged birds that are fed\nwith hemp seed are the most amorously inclined.\n\nAccording to Browne[157] whole fields are in Africa sown with _hashish_,\nthe _bang_ of the East Indies, for the purpose of being used as a\nstimulant to amorous dalliance. It is used in a variety of forms, but in\nnone, it is supposed, more effectually than what in Arabic, is called\nMaij\u00fbn, a kind of electuary, in which both men and women indulge to\nexcess.\n\nIt is said that the Chinese, domesticated at Batavia, avail themselves\nof a certain electuary for the purpose of stimulating their appetite for\nsexual intercourse. This preparation, called by them Affion, is chiefly\ncomposed of opium, and it is asserted that its effect is so violent that\na brutal passion supervenes and continues throughout the night, the\nfemale being obliged to flee from the too energetic embraces of her\nlover.[158]\n\nNarcotics, in general, and especially, opium, have been considered as\ndirect aphrodisiacs, an opinion which, if well founded, would enable us\nto account more easily far those agreeable sensations by which the use\nof these substances is followed.\n\nBut it is very probable that narcotics act upon the genital organs in no\nother way than they do upon the other ones, that is to say, they\ncertainly do simulate them, but only proportionately to the increase of\nforce in the circulation of the blood and to the power or tone of the\nmuscular fibre. It is also very probable that the voluptuous\nimpressions superinduced by them depend upon the circumstances under\nwhich those persons are, who habitually indulge in them, and that they\nare connected with other impressions or with particular ideas which\nawaken them. If, for instance, in a Sultan reclining upon his sofa, the\nintoxication of opium is accompanied by images of the most ravishing\ndelight, and if it occasions in him that sweet and lively emotion which\nthe anticipation of those delights awakens throughout the whole nervous\nsystem, the same inebriation is associated in the mind of a Janizary or\na Spahi with ideas of blood and carnage, with paroxysms, the brutal fury\nof which has certainly, nothing in common with the tender emotions of\nlove. It is in vain to allege in proof of the aphrodisiacal qualities of\nopium the state of erection in which the genital members of Turks are\nfound when lying dead on a field of battle,[159] for this state depends\nupon, or is caused by, the violent spasm or universal convulsive\nmovements with which the body is seized in the moment of death: the same\nphenomenon frequently appears in persons who suffer hanging. In warm\ncountries, it is the concomitant of death from convulsive diseases, and\nin our own climate, it has been observed in persons who have died from\napoplectic attacks.\n\nThe power which certain odours possess of exciting venereal desires\nadmits not the slightest doubt, at least as far as the inferior animals\nare concerned. Nearly all the mammifera exhale or emit, in the rutting\nseason, peculiar emanations serving to announce from afar to the male\nthe presence of the female and to excite in him the sexual desire. Facts\nhave been observed with respect to insects even, which cannot be\notherwise accounted for than by odorous effluvia. If, for instance, the\nfemale of the bombyx butterfly, be placed in a box accurately closed, it\nwill not be long before several males will be seen flying around the\nprison, and which could not possibly have known, by means of their\nvisual organs, the presence of their captive Dulcinea. Now the question\nis, does anything analogous take place in our own species? Many authors\nassert that there does, and among them Virey, who, speaking of such\nexhalations, says: \"L'extr\u00eame propret\u00e9 des hommes et des femmes,\nl'habitude de se baigner et de changer souvent de linge _font\ndispara\u00eftre_ les odeurs g\u00e9nitales.[160] ... On doit aussi remarquer que\nla haire des C\u00e9nobites, la robe des Capucins, le froc des moines, les\nv\u00eatements rudes et mal-propres de diverses corporations religieuses\nexposent ceux qui les portent \u00e0 de fortes tentations, \u00e0 cause de la\nqualit\u00e9 stimulante et de la sueur f\u00e9tide dont \u00e9taient bient\u00f4t empreintes\ntoutes ces sortes d'habillements.\"[161] \"Odours,\" observes Cabanis[162]\n\"act powerfully upon the nervous system, they prepare it for all the\npleasurable sensations; they communicate to it that slight disturbance\nor commotion which appears as if inseperable from emotions of delight,\nall which may be accounted for by their exercising a special action\nupon those organs whence originate the most rapturous pleasure of which\nour nature is susceptible. In infancy its influence is almost nothing,\nin old age it is weak, its true epoch being that of youth, that of\nlove.\"\n\nIt is certain that among most nations, and from the remotest antiquity,\nvoluptuous women strengthened their amorous propensities by the use of\nvarious perfumes, but particularly of musk, to which has been attributed\nthe power of exciting nocturnal emissions. The great Henry IV., of\nFrance, no novice in love affairs, was opposed to the use of odours,\nmaintaining that the parts of generation should be allowed to retain\ntheir natural scent, which, in his opinion, was more effectual than all\nthe perfumes ever manufactured by art.\n\nAnother aphrodisiacal remedy, which for a long time enjoyed a great\nreputation was the penis of the stag, which was supposed to possess the\nvirtue of furnishing a man with an abundance of seminal fluid. Perhaps\nthe reason why the ancients attributed this property to the genital\nmember of that animal was from the supposition that it was the\nreceptacle of the bile; that the abundance and acrid quality of this\nfluid caused lasciviousness, and that the stag being transported by an\nerotic furor during the rutting season, he was the most salacious of\nanimals, and consequently that the genital organ of this quadruped\nwould, when applied to man's generative apparatus, impart thereto\nconsiderable heat and irritation. A somewhat similar opinion respecting\nthe horse appears to have obtained among the Tartars, if we may judge\nfrom the following account given by Foucher d'Obsonville:[163] \"Les\npalefreniers am\u00e9nent un cheval de sept \u00e0 huit ans, mais nerveux, bien\nnourri et en bon \u00e9tat. On lui pr\u00e9sente une jument comme pour la saillir,\net cependant on le retient de fa\u00e7on \u00e0 bien irriter ses id\u00e9es. Enfin,\ndans le moment o\u00f9 il semble qu'il va lui \u00eatre libre de s'\u00e9lancer dessus,\nl'on fait adroitment passer la verge dans un cordon dont le n\u0153ud\ncoulant est rapproch\u00e9 au ventre, ensuite, saisissant \u00e0 l'instant o\u00f9\nl'animal parait dans sa plus forte \u00e9rection, deux hommes qui tiennent\nles extr\u00e9mit\u00e9s du cordon le tirent avec force et, sur le champ, le\nmembre est s\u00e9par\u00e9 du corps au dessus le n\u0153ud coulant. Par ce moyen,\nles esprits sont retenus et fix\u00e9s dane cette partie laquelle rests\ngonfl\u00e9e; aussit\u00f4t on la lave et la fait cuire avec divers aromatiques et\n\u00e9piceries aphrodisiaques.\"\n\nThe means of procuring the vigour necessary for sexual delights has also\nbeen sought for in certain preparations celebrated by the alchymists.\nStruck by the splendour of gold, its incorruptibility, and other rare\nqualities, some physicians imagined that this metal might introduce into\nthe animal economy an inexhaustible source of strength and vitality;\nwhile empirics, abusing the credulity of the wealthy and the voluptuous\nmade them pay exorbitantly for aphrodisiacal preparations in which they\nassured their dupes that gold, under different forms, was an ingredient.\nAmong innumerable other instances, is that of a French lady who, to\nprocure herself an heir, strove to reanimate an exhausted constitution\nby taking daily in soup what she was made to believe was potable gold,\nto the value of 50 francs, a fraud to expose which it suffices to say\nthat the largest dose of perchloride of gold that can be safely\nadministered is 1/6th of a grain. The tincture of gold known by the name\nof _Mademoiselle Grimaldi's potable gold_ enjoyed a wonderful reputation\ntowards the close of the 18th century as an efficacious restorative and\nstimulant; and numerous instances of its all but miraculous powers were\nconfidently adduced. Dr. Samuel Johnson, indeed, in a note upon a\nwell-known passage in Shakespeare,[164] denies the possibility of making\ngold potable: \"There has long,\" he observes, \"prevailed an opinion that\na solution of gold has great medicinal virtues, and that the\nincorruptibility of gold might be communicated to the body impregnated\nwith it. Some have pretended to make gold _potable_ among other frauds\npractised upon credulity.\" So far back, however, as the 17th century the\nAbb\u00e9 Guence shewed that it was feasible, and even described the process\nminutely; and it is now known to every chemist that gold is susceptible\nof entering into immediate combination with chlorine by the agency of\nheat, that it may even be dissolved in water charged with chlorine, and\nthat various methods exist of obtaining chlorate of gold, a combination\nwhich is often successfully employed in the treatment of syphilitic\ncases. Ether, naptha, and essential oils take gold from its solvent, and\nform liquors which have been called _potable_ gold.\n\nEven the Christian Church itself possessed, in its early times,\naphrodisiacs peculiarly its own. \"On trouve,\" says Voltaire,[165] \"dans\nla lettre \u00e0 Maitre Acacius Lampirius (Liter\u00e6 virorum obscurorum) une\nraillerie assez forte sur la conjuration qu'on employait pair se faire\naimer des filles. Le secret consistoit \u00e0 prendre un cheveu be la fille,\non le pla\u00e7oit d'abord dans son haut-de-chausses; on faisoit une\nconfession g\u00e9n\u00e9rale et on fesoit dire trois messes, pendant les quelles\non mettoit le cheveu autour de son col; on allumait un ci\u00e8rge b\u00e9ni au\ndernier Evangile en on prononcait cette formule. 'O Vierge! je te\nconjure par la vertu du Dieu tout-puissant, par des neuf ch\u0153urs des\nanges, par la vertu gosdrienne, am\u00e8ne moi icelle fille, en chair et en\nos, afin que _je la saboule_ \u00e0 mon plaisir.'\"\n\nBourchard, Bishop of Worms, has transmitted to us[166] an account of\ncertain aphrodisiacal charms practised by women of his time, the\ndisgusting obscenity of which is such that we cannot venture upon\ntranslating the passage:\n\n \"Fecisti quod qu\u00e6dam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt\n menstruum suum sanguinem et immiscunt cibo vel potui et dant\n viris suis ad manducandum vel ad bibendum ut plus diligantur\n ab eis. Si fecisti, quinque annos per legitimas ferias\n p\u0153niteas.\n\n \"Gustasti de semine viri tui ut propter tua diabolica facta\n plus in amorem exardisceret? Si fecisti, septem annos per\n legitimas ferias p\u0153nitere debeas.\n\n \"Fecisti quod qu\u00e6dam mulieres facere solent? Prosternunt se\n in faciem et discoopertis natibus, jubent ut supra nudas\n nates conficirtur panis, ut eo decocto tradunt maritis suis\n ad comedendum. Hoc ideo faciunt ut plus exardescant in\n amorem suum. Si fecisti, duos annos per legitimas ferias\n p\u0153niteas.\n\n \"Fecisti quad qu\u00e6dam mulieres facere solent? Tollunt piscem\n vivum et mittunt eum in puerperium suum, et tamdiu ibi\n tenent, donec mortuus fuerit, et decocto pisce vel assato,\n maritis suis ad comedendum tradunt. Ideo faciunt ut plus in\n amorem suum exardescant. Si fecisti, duos annos per\n legitimas ferias p\u0153niteas.\"\n\nRemedies taken internally are not the only ones which stimulate man to\nsexual intercourse. External applications materially contribute to that\nend, and liniments have been composed wherewith to anoint the parts of\ngeneration. These washes are made of honey, liquid storax, oil and fresh\nbutter, or the fat of the wild goose, together with a small quantity of\nspurge, pyrethrum, ginger or pepper to insure the remedy's penetrating:\na few grains of ambergris, musk, or cinnamon are to be added by way of\nperfume.\n\nRemedies for the same purpose may also be applied to men's testicles\nespecially; as according to the opinion of Galen, those parts are the\nsecond source of heat, which they communicate to the whole of the body;\nfor, besides the power of engendering, they also elaborate a spirituous\nhumour or fluid which renders man robust, hardy, and courageous. The\nbest application of this kind is that composed of cinnamon powder,\ngilliflower, ginger and rose water, together with theriac, the crumb of\nbread, and red wine.\n\nIn addition to the means already mentioned for restoring vigour to the\ngenerative organs, two others may be reckoned which have been\nsuccessfully resorted to for bracing them in such persons whose\nreproductive faculties lie dormant rather than extinct: these two\nmethods are known as _flagellation_ and _urtication_.[167]\n\nFlagellation was recommended by several of the ancient physicians as an\neffectual remedy in many disorders, and this upon the physiological\naxiom of Hippocrates--_ubi stimulus, ibi affluxus_. Seneca considers it\nas able to remove the quartan ague. Jerome Mercurialis speaks of it as\nemployed by many physicians in order to impart embonpoint to thin,\nmeagre persons; and Galen informs us that slave merchants used it as a\nmeans of clearing the complexion of their slaves and plumping them up.\nAl\u00e6deus of Padua, recommends flagellation with green nettles, that is,\nurtication, to be performed on the limbs of young children for the\npurpose of hastening the eruption of the small pox. Thomas\nCampanella[168] attributes to flagellation the virtue of curing\nintestinal obstructions, and adduces in proof to his assertion, the case\nof the Prince of Venosa, one of the best musicians of his time, who\ncould not go to stool, without being previously flogged by a valet kept\nexpressly for that purpose.\n\nEven at a later period the same opinion obtained as to the efficacy of\nflagellation, it being supposed by many physicians to reanimate the\ntorpid circulation of the capillary and cutaneous vessels, to increase\nmuscular energy, to promote absorption, and to favour the necessary\nsecretions of our nature.[169] As an erotic stimulant, more particularly\nit may be observed that, considering the many intimate and sympathetic\nrelations existing between the nervous branches of the extremity of the\nspinal marrow, it is impossible to doubt that flagellation exercised\nupon the buttocks and the adjacent parts, has a powerful effect upon the\norgans of generation.\n\nMeibomius,[170] the great advocate for the use of this remedy, remarks,\nthat stripes inflicted upon the back and loins are of great utility in\nexciting the venereal appetite, because they create warmth in those\nparts whose office it is to elaborate the semen and to convey it to the\ngenerative organs. He, therefore, considered it by no means wonderful\nthat the miserable victims of debauchery and lasciviousness, as well as\nthose whose powers have been exhausted by age or excess, should have\nrecourse to flagellation as a remedy. He observes that its effect is\nvery likely to be that of renewing warmth in the now frigid parts, and\nof furnishing heat to the semen, an effect in producing which the pain\nitself materially contributes by the blood and heat which is thereby\ndrawn down to the part until they are communicated to the reproductive\norgans, the erotic passion being thus raised, even in spite of nature\nherself, beyond her powers. A similar view is taken by a modern writer,\nwhose opinion is \"that the effect of flagellation may be easily referred\nto the powerful sympathy which exists between the nerves of the lower\npart of the spinal marrow and other organs. Artificial excitement\nappears in some degree natural; it is observed in several animals,\nespecially in the feline race. Even snails plunge into each other a\nbony, prickly spur, that arises from their throats, and which, like the\nsting of the wasp, frequently breaks off, and is left in the\nwound.\"[171]\n\nAfter the appearance of the Abb\u00e9 Boileau's _Histoire de la\nFlagellation_, the Jesuits condemned several propositions found either\nin that work or in others approved by him. The following is one:\n\n \"Necesse est cum musculi lumbares virgis aut flagellis\n diverberantur, spiritus vitales revelli, adeoque salaces\n motus ob vicinam partium genitalium et testium excitari,\n qui venereis ac illecebris cerebrum mentemque fascinant ac\n virtutem castitatis ad extremas augustias redigunt.\"\n\nFrom out of almost innumerable instances of the efficacy of flagellation\nas an aphrodisiac, the following are selected.\n\nCornelius Gallus, the friend of Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, and Catullus,\nand who, according to Pliny, died the most delightful of deaths by\nexpiring in the embraces of the fondest object of his affections,[172]\nwas solely indebted for the delicious transports he enjoyed with her to\nthe scourge with which her severe father chastised her for the faults\nthat originated in too warm a temperament, a punishment which, instead\nof counteracting, furthered the wishes of the voluptuous Roman.\n\nJean Pic de Mirandole relates[173] the case of a person known to him\nwho, being a great libertine, could not consummate the act of love\nwithout being flagellated until the blood came, and that, therefore,\nproviding himself for the occasion with a whip steeped in vinegar, he\npresented it to his _inamorata_, begging her not to spare him, for \"plus\non le fouettait, plus il y trouvait des d\u00e9lices, la douleur et la\nvolupt\u00e9 marchant, dans cet homme, d'un pas egal.\"\n\nMeibomius mentions the case of a citizen of Lubeck who, being accused\nand convicted of adultery, was sentenced to be banished. A woman of\npleasure with whom this man had been for a long time intimate, appeared\nbefore the judges as a witness on his behalf. This woman swore that the\nman was never able to consummate the act of love with her unless he had\nbeen previously flogged,--an operation which it was also necessary to\nrepeat before each successive indulgence.\n\nThat this was a means employed by Abelard in his commerce with Heloisa,\nappears from the following passages in two of his letters to her;\n\n \"Verbera quandoque dabat amor non furor, gratia non ira qu\u00e6\n omnium unguentorum suavitatem transcenderent.\"[174]\n\n \"Stripes which, whenever inflicted by love, not by fury but\n affection, transcended, in sweetness, every unguent.\"\n\n \"Nosti quantis turpitudinibus immoderata mea libido corpora\n nostra addixerat et nulla honestatis vel Dei reverentia in\n ipsis diebus Dominic\u00e6 passionis vel quantarumque\n solemnitatem ut hujus luti volutabro me revocavit. Sed et te\n nolentem aut dissuadentem qu\u00e6 natura infirmior eras, ut\n s\u00e6pius minis ac flagellis ad consensum trahebam.[175]\"\n\n \"Thou knowest to what shameful excesses my unbridled lust\n had delivered up our bodies, so that no sense of decency, no\n reverence for God, could, even in the season of our Lord's\n passion, or during any other holy festival, drag me forth\n from out that cesspool of filthy mire; but that even with\n threats and scourges I often compelled thee who wast, by\n nature, the weaker vessel, to comply, notwithstanding thy\n unwillingness and remonstrances.\"\n\nThe renowned Tamerlane, the mighty conqueror of Asia, required a like\nstimulus,[176] the more so perhaps from the circumstance of his being a\nmonorchis.[177]\n\nThe Abb\u00e9 Boileau, in his well known and entertaining \"Histoire des\nFlagellants,\" partly attributes the gross licentiousness of that period\nto the strange practice then in vogue of doing penance by being scourged\nin public; and his brother the celebrated poet and critic, defending the\nAbb\u00e9 against the animadversions of the Jesuits, remarks very forcibly:\n\n \"Non, le livre des Flagellans\n N'a jamais condamn\u00e9, lisez le bien, mes p\u00e8res,\n Ces rigidit\u00e9s salutaires\n Qui, pour ravir le Ciel, saintement violens,\n Exercent sur leurs corps, tant de Chr\u00e9tiens aust\u00e8res;\n Il bl\u00e2me seulement ces abus odieux\n D'\u00e9taler et d'offrir aux yeux\n Ce que leur doit toujours cacher la bienveillance,\n Et combat vivement la fausse pi\u00e9t\u00e9,\n _Qui sous couleur d'eteindre en nous la volupt\u00e9\n Par l'aust\u00e9rit\u00e9 m\u00e9me, et par la p\u00e9nitence\n Sait allumer le feu de la lubricit\u00e9_.[178]\"\n\nFlagellation, indeed, as well as the custom of wearing the hair-shirt,\nso common with the monks, and even with religious lay catholics, was, by\nthe stimulus it imparted to the skin, and hence to the internal viscera,\nmuch more likely to increase the energy of the physiological functions,\nand _thus excite the commission of the very acts they are intended to\nsuppress_.\n\nThe Abb\u00e9 Chuppe d'Auteroche, member of the Acad\u00e9mie des Sciences, and\nwho died in California a few days after the observation of the Transit\nof Venus in 1760, remarks that the stripes given to persons frequenting\nthe vapour baths in Russia impart activity to the fluids and elasticity\nto the organs and gives additional stimulus to the venereal\nappetite.[179]\n\nM. Serrurier records the following curious case. \"One of my\nschoolfellows, who found an indescribable pleasure in being flogged,\npurposely and wilfully neglected his duty in order to draw upon himself\nthe correction, which never failed to produce an emission of semen. As\nmay easily be imagined he soon began the practice of masturbation, in\nwhich he indulged to so frightful an extent that rapid consumption\nensued, and he died, a most horrible and disgusting object, affording a\nmelancholy example of that fatal vice.\"[180]\n\nThe case of Jean Jacques Rousseau is well known. When a child he was by\nno means displeased with the corrections administered to him by a lady\nconsiderably his elder, he even frequently sought for a whipping at her\nhands, especially after he perceived that the flagellation developed in\nhim the manifest token of virility. But he must be allowed to give his\nown account of it. \"Assez long temps,\" says he, \"Madame Lambercier\ns'entint \u00e0 la menace, et cette menace d'un ch\u00e2timent tout nouveau pour\nmoi me semblait tr\u00e8s effrayante, mais apr\u00e8s l'ex\u00e9cution, je la trouvai\nmoins terrible \u00e0 l'\u00e9preuve que l'attente ne l'avait \u00e9t\u00e9, et ce qu'il y\na de plus bizarre est qui ce ch\u00e2timent m'affectionna davantage d'elle\nqui me l'avoit impos\u00e9. Il fallait m\u00eame toute la v\u00e9rit\u00e9 de cette\naffection et toute ma douceur naturelle pour m'emp\u00eacher de chercher le\nretour du m\u00eame traitement en le m\u00e9ritant, car j'avais trouv\u00e9 dans la\ndouleur, dans la honte m\u00eame, un m\u00e9lange de sensualit\u00e9 qui m'avait laiss\u00e9\nplus de d\u00e9sir que de crainte de l'\u00e9prouver derechef, par la m\u00eame main.\nIl est vrai que comme il se m\u00ealait, sans doute, \u00e0 cela quelque instinct\npr\u00e9coce du sexe, le m\u00eame ch\u00e2timent re\u00e7u de son fr\u00e8re, ne m'eut point du\ntout, parut plaisant.\"[181]\n\nAs flagellation is practised by striking the skin with a rod formed of\ntwigs, until the heat and redness become more intense, so if the twigs\nbe replaced by fresh nettles, the operation will become,--_urtication_.\n\nThe employment of urtication is of great antiquity, for Celsus as well\nas Aret\u00e6us mentions the use of it, it being in those times, a popular\nremedy. That the Romans had frequent recourse to it in order to\narouse the sexual appetite, is proved by the following passage from\nPetronius Arbiter, which for obvious reasons, we shall content\nourselves with giving in the original only. \"Oenothea semiebria ad me\nrespiciens;--Perficienda sunt, inquit, mysteria _ut recipas nervos_.\n\n\"Simulque profert scorteum fascinum quod, ut olio et minuto pipere, atque\n_urtic\u00e6_ trito circumdedit semine, paulatim c\u0153pit inserere ano meo.\nHoc crudelissima anus spargit subinde femina mea Nasturcii[182] succum\ncum abrotono miscet, perfusis que inguinibus meis, viridis urtic\u00e6 fascem\ncomprehendit omnes que infra umbilicum c\u0153pit lenta manu c\u00e6dere.\"[183]\n\nMenghus Faventinus assures us that nettles have \"une propri\u00e9t\u00e9\nmerveilleuse pour allonger, tendre, grossir et \u00e9riger le membre viril,\nqui, par une parsimonie de la nature, feroit craindre la\nst\u00e9rilit\u00e9.\"[184]\n\nUrtication appears to have been well known in France during the time of\nRabelais, who alluding to this mode of procuring the vigour necessary\nfor the amorous conflict, says, \"se frotter le cul au panicaut (a\nspecies of thistle) vrai moyen d'avoir au cul passion.\"\n\n Une femme en m\u00e9lancholie\n Pour faute d'occupation,\n Frottez moi le cul d'ortie\n Elle aura au cul passion.[185]\n\nThe irritation caused by nettles produces effects analogous to those\nwhich are observed in persons afflicted with the itch, the ring-worm and\nleprosy. The lubricity of those unfortunates is sometimes uncontrolable;\nthey suffer violent priapisms, which are followed by ejaculation,\nwhenever a severe itching forces them to scratch themselves with a kind\nof furor or madness.\n\n \"In a medical point of view,\" observes Dr. Milligen,\n \"urtication, or stinging with nettles, is a practice not\n sufficiently appreciated. In many instances, especially in\n cases of paralysis it is more efficacious than blistering or\n stimulating frictions. Its effects, though perhaps less\n permanent, are general and diffused over the limb. This\n process has been found effectual in restoring _heat to the\n lower extremities_, and a case of obstinate lethargy was\n cured by Corvisart by a repeated urtication of the whole\n body. During the action of the stimulus, the patient, who\n was a young man, would open his eyes and laugh, but then\n sink again into a profound sleep. In three weeks, however,\n his perfect cure was effected.\"[186]\n\nIn 1783, Dr. James Graham, an humble imitator of the celebrated\nCagliostro, commenced giving his sanatary lectures, which he illustrated\nby the dazzling presence of his Goddess of Health, a character which,\nfor a short time, was sustained by Emma Harte, afterwards the celebrated\nLady Hamilton, wife of Sir William Hamilton, English Ambassador at the\nCourt of Naples, and the _ch\u00e8re amie_ of the immortal Nelson.\n\nAfter describing various aphrodisiacal remedies, the lecturer thus\nproceeds: \"But, gentlemen, if all the above means and methods, which I\nhave thus faithfully, ingenuously, and with the frankest and most\nunreserved liberality, recommended, fail, suffer me, with great\ncordiality, and assurance of success, to recommend my celestial, or\nmedico, magnetico, musico, electrical bed, which I have, with so much\nstudy and at so vast an expense, constructed, not alone to insure the\nremoval of barrenness, when conception is at all in the nature of things\npossible, but likewise to improve, exalt, and invigorate the bodily, and\nthrough them, the mental faculties of the human species. This bed, whose\nseemingly _magical_ influences are now celebrated from pole to pole and\nfrom the rising to the setting sun! is indeed an _unique_ in science!\nand unquestionably the first and the only one that ever was mentioned,\nerected, or even, perhaps, thought of, in the world; and I will now\nconclude the lecture with giving you a slight descriptive sketch of the\nstructure of the bed, and the nature of those influences with which it\nglows--which it breathes forth, and with which it animates,\nregenerates, and transports those happy, happy persons who have the\nhonour and the paradisiacal blessedness of reposing on it.\n\n \"The Grand Celestial State Bed! then, gentlemen, which is\n twelve feet long by nine wide, is supported by forty pillars\n of brilliant glass, of great strength and of the most\n exquisite workmanship, in regard to shape, cutting, and\n engravings; sweetly delicate and richly variegated colours,\n and the most brilliant polish! They are, moreover, invisibly\n incrusted with a certain transparent varnish in order to\n render the insulation still more complete; and that\n otherwise, properly assisted, we may have, in even the most\n unfavourable weather, abundance of the electrical fire.\n\n \"The sublime, the magnificent, and, I may say, the\n super-celestial dome of the bed, which contains the\n odoriferous, balmy, and ethereal spices, odours, and\n essences, and which is the grand magazine or reservoir of\n those vivifying and invigorating influences which are\n exhaled and dispersed by the breathing of the music, and by\n the attenuating, repelling, and accelerating force of the\n electrical fire,--is very curiously inlaid or wholly covered\n on the under side with brilliant plates of looking-glass, so\n disposed as to reflect the various attractive charms of the\n happy recumbent couple, in the most flattering, most\n agreeable and most enchanting style.\n\n \"On the top or summit of the dome, are placed, in the most\n loving attitudes, two exquisite figures, representing the\n marriage of Cupid and Psyche, with a fine figure of Hymen\n behind, and over them, with his torch flaming with\n electrical fire in one hand and, with the other, supporting\n a celestial crown, sparkling, likewise, with the effulgent\n fire over a pair of real living turtle-doves, who, on a\n little bed of roses, coo and bill under the super-animating\n impulses of the genial fire! The other elegant groups of\n figures which sport on the top of the dome--the Cupids, the\n Loves, and the Graces!--besides festoons of the freshest and\n most beautiful flowers, have each of them musical\n instruments in their hands, which by the exquisite and most\n expensive mechanism, are made to breathe forth sounds\n corresponding with the appearance of the several\n instruments,--flutes, guitars, violins, clarionets,\n trumpets, horns, oboes, kettle-drums, &c. On the posts or\n pillars, too, which support the grand dome are groups of\n figures, musical instruments, organ-pipes, &c., which, in\n sweet concert with the other instruments, at the\n commencement of the tender dalliance of the happy pair,\n breathe forth celestial sounds! lulling them in visions of\n elysian joys! opening new sources of pleasure, and\n \"untwisting all the chains which tie the hidden soul of\n harmony!\" At the head of the bed, in the full centre front,\n appears, sparkling with electrical fire, through a glory of\n burnished and effulgent gold, the great, first,\n ever-operating commandment, BE FRUITFUL, MULTIPLY, AND\n REPLENISH THE EARTH! under this is a most elegant and\n sweet-toned organ, in the front of which is a fine landscape\n of moving figures on the earth, birds flying, swans, &c.,\n gliding on the waters, a fine procession, too, is seen,\n village nymphs strewing flowers before priests, brides,\n bridegrooms, and their attendants, who, all entering into\n the temple of Hymen, disappear from the delightful eye. The\n painting and embellishment of this front are most masterly,\n and reflect the highest honour on the artists by whom they\n were executed; and the whole view is terminated with\n fountains, waterfalls, shepherds, shepherdesses, and other\n peasants, as pastoral sports and rural employment, and by a\n little church, the dial of which points out truly and\n distinctly the hour.\n\n \"In the celestial bed no feather bed is employed; sometimes\n mattresses filled with sweet new wheat or cut straw, with\n the grain in the ears, and mingled with balm, rose leaves,\n lavender flowers, and oriental spices, and, at other times,\n springy hair mattresses are used. Neither will you find upon\n the celestial bed linen sheets; our sheets are of the\n richest and softest silk or satin; of various colours suited\n to the complexion of the lady who is to repose on them. Pale\n green, for example, rose colour, sky blue, black, white,\n purple, azure, mazarin blue, &c., and they are sweetly\n perfumed in the oriental manner, with otto and odour of\n roses, jessamine, tuberose, rich gums, fragrant balsams,\n oriental spices, &c.; in short, everything is done to assist\n the ethereal, magnetic, musical and electric influences, and\n to make the lady look as lovely as possible in the eyes of\n her husband and he, in hers. But to return, in order that I\n might have for the important purposes, the strongest and\n most springy hair, I procured, at a vast expense, the tails\n of English stallions, which when twisted, baked and then\n untwisted and properly prepared, is elastic to the highest\n degree.\n\n \"But the chief elastic principle of my celestial bed is\n produced by artificial loadstones. About fifteen hundred\n pounds' weight of artificial and compound magnets are so\n disposed and arranged as to be continually pouring forth in\n an ever-flowing circle inconceivable and irrestibly powerful\n tides of the magnetic effluxion, which is well known to have\n a very strong affinity with the electric fire.\n\n \"Such is a slight and inadequate sketch of the grand\n celestial bed, which, being thus completely\n insulated,--highly saturated with the most genial floods or\n electrical fire!--fully impregnated moreover, with the balmy\n vivifying effluvia of restorative balsamic medicines and of\n soft, fragrant, oriental gums, balsams and quintescence, and\n pervaded at the same times with full springing tides of the\n invigorating influences of music and magnets both real and\n artificial, gives such elastic vigour to the nerves, on the\n one hand, of the male, and on the other, such retentive\n firmness to the female; and, moreover, all the faculties of\n the soul being so fully expanded, and so highly illuminated,\n that it is impossible, in the nature of things, but that\n strong, beautiful, brilliant, nay, double-distilled\n children, if I may use the expression, must infallibly be\n begotten.\"\n\nA digression may, perhaps, be here pardonable, in order to give some\nnotice of the latter and last days of the beautiful, highly accomplished\nand fascinating woman mentioned above.\n\nShe had been presented to Nelson by her husband, who had previously told\nher that he was about to introduce her to a little _thread-paper_ of a\nman, who could not boast of being very handsome, but who would become,\nsome day, one of the greatest men that England ever produced. After the\nbattle of the Nile he again visited Naples, and was now little better\nthan a perfect wreck. At Calvi, in 1794, he had lost an eye. At\nTeneriffe his right arm was shattered and amputated close to the\nshoulder. At the battle of the Nile he was severely wounded in the head.\nIncessant anxiety and watchfulness for his country's honour and welfare\nhad blanched his brow, and shattered the \"little thread-paper of a man\"\nat the outset, till, on his return in triumph to his mistress, he seemed\nto be on the verge of an early grave.\n\nYet she proved herself a true woman, if an erring one, in her reception\nof the man she loved, and unhesitatingly and unequivocally forsook her\nall, to attend upon and worship him.\n\nNot far from Merton turnpike stood the house of Nelson and his mistress.\nIt was left with all its liabilities to Lady Hamilton, but she was\nobliged to take a hasty departure, and, harassed by creditors, in\nsickness of heart and without funds, the unhappy woman escaped to\nCalais.\n\nNow for the sad, sad finale. From the portal of a house, as cheerless\nand dreary as can be imagined, in the month of January, with a black\nsilk petticoat stretched on a white curtain thrown over her coffin for a\npall, and an half-day Irish dragoon to act as chaplain over the grave,\nwhich was in a timber-yard, were the remains of Nelson's much-adored\nfriend removed to their final resting place, under the escort of a\n_sergent de ville_.\n\nShe died without the common necessaries of life, and was buried at the\nexpense of the town, notwithstanding Nelson's last words, \"_Blackwood,\ntake care of my poor Lady Hamilton!_\"\n\n\"Whatever the errors of Lady Hamilton may have been,\" says Doran, \"let\nus not forget that without her aid, as Nelson said, the battle of the\nNile would never have been fought, and that in spite of her sacrifices\nand services, England left her to starve, because the government was too\nvirtuous to acknowledge the benefits rendered to her country by a lady\nwith too loose a zone.\"\n\nThe remarks of honest old Burton[187] upon Aphrodisiacs, though quaint,\nare so judicious and pertinent, that we cannot better conclude this part\nof our essay than by quoting them:--\n\n \"The last battering engines,\" says he, \"are philters,\n amulets, charms, images, and such unlawful meanes: if they\n cannot prevail of themselves by the help of bawds, panders,\n and their adherents, they will fly for succour to the devil\n himself. I know there be those that denye the devil can do\n any such thing, and that there is no other fascination than\n that which comes by the eyes. It was given out, of old, that\n a Thessalian wench had bewitched King Philip to dote on her,\n and by philters enforced his love, but when Olympia, his\n queen, saw the maid of an excellent beauty well brought up\n and qualified: these, quoth she, were the philters which\n enveagled King Philip, these the true charms as Henry to\n Rosamond.\"[188]\n\n \"One accent from thy lips the blood more warmes\n Than all their philters, exorcismes, and charms.\"\n\nWith that alone Lucretia brags, in Aretine, she could do more than all\nphilosophers, astrologers, alychmists, necromancers, witches, and the\nrest of the crew. As for herbs and philters I could never skill of them.\n_The sole philter I ever used was kissing and embracing, by which alone\nI made men rave like beasts, stupefied and compelled them to worship me\nlike an idol._[189]\n\n\n\n\nANTI-APHRODISIACS.\n\n\nThe means best calculated to produce effects contrary to those just\ntreated of are of several kinds, but such as are derived from hygiene\nare entitled to be considered as the most powerful. Previously, however,\nto describing the medicinal substances that may be efficaciously\nemployed in moderating, or rather checking, too violent a propensity to\nvenery, some notice must be taken of the diet adapted to insure such a\nresult.\n\nThe use of milk, vegetables, such as lettuce, water-purslain, cucumbers,\n&c., and especially of fruit in which the acid principle predominates,\nslackens the movement of the heart and of the sanguineous system; it\ndiminishes the animal heat, the chief source of which is in the activity\nof the circulation; it produces a feeling of tranquillity and of\ncoolness; the respiration being more slow, occasions the absorption of a\nless quantity of oxygen, add to which, as a less quantity of reparative\nmaterials is contained in this description of aliments, there result a\nless active nutrition, the loss of embonpoint and the complete\nprostration of every principle of irritability; in short, it is of all\ndiets the one least capable of furnishing fuel to the passions. For\ncommon drink mere water, and, if the impulse of passion should increase,\na small quantify of nitre, vinegar, or vitrolic acid, may, occasionally\nbe added to the water to make it more cooling.\n\nOther means conducive to the same end are a laborious life, much bodily\nexercise, little sleep, and a spare diet, so that the fluids may be more\neasily conducted to other parts, and that there may not be produced a\ngreater quantity than is requisite for the support of the body. Equally\nvaluable\n\n \"When there's a young and sweating devil\n That commonly rebels,\"\n\nwill be found what Shakespeare recommends--\n\n \"A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer,\n Much castigation, exercise devout.\"[190]\n\nShould the desire of committing excesses rise to any height, immediate\nrecourse must be had to some serious and mind-absorbing occupation, less\nnutritious food and drink should be taken, all dishes peculiarly\nstimulating to the palate avoided, as well as the use of wine and other\nspirituous liquors.\n\nA cool regimen in every respect was particularly insisted upon by the\nancients: hence Plato and Aristotle recommended the custom of going\nbarefoot as a means of checking the stimulus to carnal desire, a\nsuggestion which appears to have been acted upon by some of the monkish\norders. The cold bath was considered equally efficacious, while some,\namong whom may be reckoned Pliny and Galen, advised thin sheets of lead\nto be worn on the calves of the legs and near the kidneys.\n\nThe first and most important of the hygienic means consists in shunning\nevery species of excitement and in having little or no communication\nwith the sex, and the earlier such restraint is imposed, the better. \"He\nthat is chaste and continent, not to impair his strength, or terrified\nby contagion, will hardly be heroically virtuous. Adjourn not that\nvirtue until those years when Cato could lend out his wife, and impotent\nsatyrs write satires against lust--but be chaste in thy flaming days,\nwhen Alexander dared not trust his eyes upon the fair sisters of\nDarius, and when so many men think that there is no other way than that\nof Origen.\"[191][192]\n\nThe next means is that of carefully abstaining from the perusal of all\npublications calculated to inflame the passions, by which publications\nare meant, not obscene books only. With respect to these, indeed, a\ngreat error obtains, for the persons most anxious to peruse them are,\nfor the most part, old, worn-out debauchees, men whose generative powers\nare, comparatively, feeble, if not altogether destroyed, and who,\nunfortunately for themselves, require this unnatural and detestable kind\nof stimulus, while, on the contrary, young men and those in middle life,\nwho had not drawn too largely upon their constitution, and for whom the\nallurements of nature are themselves a sufficient provocative, regard\nsuch publications with horror and disgust. It is not, therefore, we\nrepeat, works of this description which we allude to, but those the\nperusal of which is more dangerous during the period of the\npassions--novels, more especially such as, under the pretext of\ndescribing the working of the human heart, draw the most seducing and\ninflammatory pictures of illicit love, and throw the veil of sentimental\nphilosophy over the orgies of debauchery and licentiousness. Nothing is\nmore perilous to youth, especially of the female sex, than this\ndescription of books. Their style is chaste, not one word is found that\ncan offend the ear, while the mind of the unsuspecting reader is often\ntainted and corrupted by the most impure ideas and descriptions clothed\nin the most elegant phraseology. How admirably does Voltaire stigmatise\nthis attention to a mere superficial (if the epitaph be allowed) purity!\n\"Plus,\" says he \"les m\u0153urs sont d\u00e9prav\u00e9s, plus les expressions\ndeviennent m\u00e9sur\u00e9es: on croit de gagner en langage ce qu'on a perdu en\nvertu. La pudeur s'est enfuite des c\u0153urs et s'est refugi\u00e9e sur les\nl\u00e8vres.\"\n\nThere are two kinds of study particularly adapted to preserve the mind\nand the affections from the assaults of vice and libidinousness. The\nfirst of these is the _Mathematics_, whose efficacy in this respect has\nbeen proved by frequent experience. The Venetian lady mentioned by\nRousseau in his \"Confessions\" was not ignorant of this their power,\nwhen, seeing the singular effect which her charms had produced upon the,\nas yet, youthful philosopher, said to him, \"_Gianetto, lascia le donne e\nstudia la matimatica_.\" \"James, give up the ladies, and apply yourself\nto mathematics.\" It will, indeed, be found that, in all ages,\nmathematicians have been but little disposed or addicted to love, and\nthe most celebrated among them, Sir Isaac Newton, is reputed to have\nlived without ever having had sexual intercourse. The intense mental\napplication required by philosophical abstraction forcibly determines\nthe nervous fluid towards the intellectual organs, and hinders it from\nbeing directed towards those of reproduction.\n\nAfter the study of the Mathematics comes that of _Natural History_,\nwhich will be found to be almost equally beneficial, requiring as it\ndoes, the unremitting attention of the student, his perambulation of the\nopen country, and the personal observation of all animated objects.\n\nThis peculiar influence of the above-mentioned studies ought\nparticularly to engage the attention of persons who superintend the\neducation of youth; there being no doubt that the effervescence of\nyouthful passions may, to a great extent, be allayed by directing the\njuvenile mind to either of those studies, according as the constitution\nexhibits greater or less ardour and precocity. Sometimes, however, there\nare found idiosyncrasies which bid defiance to remedies of this\ndescription, but, nevertheless, yield to the force of medicine: of such,\nthe following is an instance:\n\n \"A man, by profession a musician, of an athletic figure and\n sanguine complexion, with red hair, and a very warm\n temperament, was so tormented with erotic desires that the\n venereal act, repeated several times in the course of a few\n hours, failed to satisfy him. Disgusted with himself, and\n fearing, as a religious man, the punishment with which\n concupiscence is threatened in the Gospel, he applied to a\n medical practitioner, who prescribed bleeding and the use of\n sedatives and refrigerants, together with a light diet.\n Having found no relief from this course of treatment, he was\n then recommended to have recourse to wedlock, and, in\n consequence, married a robust and healthy young woman, the\n daughter of a farmer. At first, the change appeared to\n benefit him, but, in a short time, he tired his wife out by\n his excessive lubricity, and relapsed into his former\n satyriasis. His medical friend now recommended frequent\n fasting, together with prayer, but these also failing of\n effect, the unhappy man proposed to submit to castration, an\n operation which was judged to be highly improper,\n considering the great risks the patient must necessarily\n incur. The latter, however, still persisted that his wish\n should be complied with, when, fortunately, a case having\n occurred in Paris, in which a person afflicted with\n nephritic pains occasioned by the presence of a calculus,\n was cured by a preparation of nitre, at the expense,\n however, of being for ever incapacitated for the pleasures\n of love, the hint was taken, and doses of nitre dissolved in\n _aqua nymph\u00e6_ were given, night and morning, during the\n space of eight days, and with such success that, at the end\n of that time, he could scarcely satisfy the moderate claims\n of his wife.\"[193]\n\nSome physicians place great confidence in the medicines called\nrefrigerants. The most favourite of these are infusions from the leaves\nor flowers of the white water-lily (_nymphea alba_), sorrel, lettuce,\nperhaps also from mallows, violets, and endive (cichorium), oily seeds,\nand waters distilled from lettuce, water lily, cucumbers, purslain, and\nendives. In equal esteem are the syrups of orgeat, lemons, and vinegar,\nto which may be added cherry-laurel water, when given in proper and\ngradually-increasing doses. Hemlock, camphor, and agnus-castus, have\nlikewise been much recommended as moderators of the sexual appetite.\n\nAccording to Pliny,[194] the nymphea alba was considered so powerful\nthat these who take it for twelve days successively will then find\nthemselves incapable of propagating their species, and if it be used for\nforty days, the amorous propensity will be entirely extinguished.\n\nWith respect to hemlock, it is too dangerous a medicine to repose\nconfidence in.\n\nThe ancients had a high opinion of camphor, a reputation which this drug\npreserved until, comparatively, a late period, for Scaliger informs\nthat, in the 17th century, monks were compelled to smell and masticate\nit for the purpose of extinguishing concupiscence; and it was a\nfavourite maxim of the medical school of Salernum[195] that--\n\n \"Camphora per nares castrat odore mares.\"\n\n Camphor if smell'd\n A man will geld.\n\nThis fatal property, however, has been denied by modern medical\nauthorities, and apparently with reason, if the fact be true that such\nworkmen as are employed in extracting this useful vegetable product, and\nwho may be said to live constantly in a highly camphorated atmosphere,\ndo not find themselves in the leash degree incapacitated for gratifying\nthe calls of _l'amour physique_.\n\nThere is no doubt, on the other hand, that camphor has been successfully\nemployed in cases of nymphomania, and that several medical writers have\nasserted its efficacy in neutralising the properties of cantharides,\nadducing instances which would appear to prove its sedative power: the\nfollowing one is related by Groenvelt:--[196]\n\nA young man who had taken a large dose of cantharides in some wine, felt\nat first, a sort of violent itching, accompanied by great irritation in\nthe bladder, and soon after he suffered greatly from extreme heat,\ntogether with an intolerable strangury. Bleeding, emulsions, injections,\nand opium preparations afforded not the slightest relief. Groenvelt\nprescribed two scruples of camphor in two boluses. The first dose partly\nmitigated the pains, and the second one removed them entirely. The\nremedies which were first administered had, no doubt, weakened the\ninflammation, and the strangury being no longer kept up by the spasmodic\nstate of the urinary apparatus, camphor sufficed to effect a cure.\nBurton asserts the value of camphor as an anti-aphrodisiac, and says\nthat when fastened to the parts of generation, or carried in the\nbreeches, it renders the virile member flaccid.\n\nAgnus castus, so called from the down on its surface resembling that\nupon the skin of a lamb, and from its supposed anti-aphrodisiacal\nqualities, was in great repute among the Athenians, whose women, during\nthe celebration of the Thesmophoria, or feasts and sacrifices in honour\nof Ceres or Thesmophoria, the legislatress, abstained for some days from\nall the pleasures of love, separating themselves entirely for that time\nfrom the men. It was also usual with them during the solemnities to\nstrew their beds with agnus castus, fleabane, and other herbs as were\nsupposed to have the power of expelling amorous inclinations. Arnaud de\nVilleneuve[197] exaggerates, almost to a ridiculous degree, the virtue\nof the agnus castus, asserting as he does, that the surest way to\npreserve chastity, is to carry about the person, a knife with a handle\nmade of its wood. It was also, and perhaps is still, much used by the\nmonks, who made an emulsion of its seeds steeped in Nenuphar water, and\nof which they daily drank a portion, wearing at the same time round\ntheir loins a girdle made of its branches. Lettuce has also the\nreputation of being anti-aphrodisiacal. Lobel instances the case of an\nEnglish nobleman who had long been desirous of having an heir to his\nestates, but all in vain. Being, however, at length advised to\ndiscontinue eating lettuces, of which he was particularly fond, his\nwishes were gratified by his being blessed with a numerous offspring.\n\nThe desire for coition was also supposed to be diminished by drinking a\ndecoction of the pounded leaves of the willow. Vervain, dried coriander,\nand also mustard, drunk in a fluid state, are also said to prevent the\nerection of the penis. Alexander Benedictus declares that a topaz having\nbeen previously rubbed against the right testicle of a wolf, then\nsteeped in oil or in rose water and worn as a ring, induces a disgust\nfor venereal pleasures, as does also, if we may credit the same sapient\nphysiologist, a powder made of dried frog. The two following\nprescriptions are also said to be of great efficacy:--\n\n \"Da verbena in potu, et non erigitur virga sex diebus. Utere\n menth\u00e2 sicc\u00e2 cum aceto: genitalia illinita succo hyoscyami\n aut cicut\u00e6 coit\u00fbs appetitum sedant.\"\n\nIt has even been asserted that coffee possesses the same property. In\nthe year 1695 it was maintained, in a thesis at the Ecole de M\u00e9dicine at\nParis, that the daily use of coffee deprived both man and woman of the\ngenerative power. M. Hecquet[198] relates the following anecdote as a\nproof of such effect:--\n\nA Queen of Persia seeing some grooms using all their efforts to throw a\nhorse upon the ground, enquired the reason of the trouble they were thus\ntaking. Her attendants gave her to understand as delicately as they\ncould, that it was far the purpose of castrating him.\n\n \"How unnecessary is so much trouble,\" said her majesty,\n \"they have only to give him coffee, and their object will be\n fully and easily attained.\"[199]\n\nMost probably the queen spoke from her own experience of its\nanti-aphrodisiacal effects upon her royal consort.\n\nThere are some diseases which are considered as anti-aphrodisiacal, on\naccount of the decided aversion which the patient who is afflicted with\nthem feels for the pleasures of the sexual union. Thus a species of\nepidemic leprosy is common among the Cossacks of the Jaik, which is\nattended by pains in the joints and a disgust for copulation, a disgust\nthe more extraordinary, not only because exanthematous diseases, in\ngeneral excite a desire for the above act, but also inasmuch as this\nmalady, in particular usually attacks persons in the prime of their\nyouth. Another disease analogous to the one just mentioned, the\nPlica-Polonica, rages, during the autumnal season, in Poland, Lithuania,\nand Tartary. It is said to have been introduced into the first of these\ncountries by the Tartars, who had it originally from India. One of the\nmost singular phenomena attending this disorder, and which evidently\nproves the close sympathy existing between the head and the organs of\ngeneration, is that when the patient is bald, the Plica not unfrequently\nfastens upon the sexual parts, and acquires such a length as to descend\nbelow the calves of the legs. The mode of treatment, that of mercury and\nsudorifics, proves the mucous character of the disorder, and,\nconsequently, accounts for its well known tendency to strike the whole\nanimal economy with that prostration of strength which produces a total\nindifference to the sex.\n\nContinual exercise on horseback was considered by Hippocrates[200] as\nanti-aphrodisiacal and Van Sweiten commenting upon that opinion, justly\nobserves that the continual joltings caused by so violent an exercise,\nadded to the compression produced upon the parts of generation by the\nweight of the body, was by no means unlikely to produce a focal\nrelaxation of those organs to such an extent as to prevent erection\naltogether.\n\nIf whatever opposes an obstacle to the gratification of the\nsexual appetite may be considered as having a place among the\nanti-aphrodisiacs, certain mechanical processes may be ranked as such.\nOf these, _fibulation_, from the Latin word _fibula_ (a buckle or ring)\nwas the very reverse of circumcision, since the operation consisted in\ndrawing the prepuce over the glans, and preventing its return, by the\ninsertion of the ring.[201]\n\nThe _Fibula_ (buckle) is so called, because it serves to fix together\nand to re-unite parts which are separated. It was, formerly a surgical\ninstrument which, besides the use now particularly in question, served\nalso to keep closed the lips of any extensive wounds. It is mentioned as\nbeing so applied by Oribuse,[202] and by Scribonius Largus.[203]\nEmployed, therefore, as it was for various uses, the _fibula_ appears to\nhave different shapes, now but little known to us. Rhodius[204] has\ntreated of all those mentioned in the writings of antiquity.\n\nMeinsius thinks that the custom of infibulating may be traced back to\nthe time of the siege of Troy, for the singer Demodocus, who was left\nwith Clytemnestra by Agamemnon,[205] appears to that critic, to have\nbeen a eunuch, or, at least, to here been infibulated.[206]\n\nAmong the ancients, as well as among many modern nations, the laws of\nchastity and the restraints of honour appeared scarcely sufficient to\nhinder the sexes from uniting, in spite of all the obstacles opposed by\na vigilant watch and strict seclusion.[207] Indeed, what Roman virgin\ncould entertain very strict ideas of modesty while she saw the goddess\nof love honoured in the temple, or the amours of Venus and Mars\ncelebrated, while the poor cuckolded Vulcan, after seizing the amorous\ncouple in his net, way only thereby exposed to the ridicule of the\nOlympic Divinities. There can be little doubt but that excess of this\ndescription bastardized and corrupted the ancient Greeks and Romans, and\nthat recourse was necessarily had to the _fibula_ when the deities\nthemselves set the example. Of what use, indeed, could be the moral\nlessons of a Plato or a Socrates, even when enforced by infibulation, if\nvice was thus sanctioned by divine example? The only aim of such a state\nof things was to vanquish obstacles. The art of eluding nature was\nstudied, marriage was despised, notwithstanding the edicts of Augustus\nagainst bachelors; the depopulated republic wallowed in the most\nabandoned lust, and, as a natural consequence, the individual members of\nit became corrupted and enervated from their very infancy.\n\nThe infibulation of boys, sometimes on account of their voice, and not\nunfrequently, to prevent masturbation, was performed by having the\nprepuce drawn over the glans; it was then pierced, and a thick thread\nwas passed through it, remaining there until the cicatrizing of the\nhole; when that took place, a rather large ring was then substituted,\nwhich was not removed but with the permission of the party ordering the\noperation.[208] The Romans infibulated their singers in order to\npreserve their voice:\n\n \"Si gaudet cantu; _nullius fibula_ durat\n Vocem vendentis pr\u00e6toribus.\"[209]\n\n \"But should the dame in music take delight,\n The public singer is disabled quite;\n In vain the pr\u00e6tor guards him all he can,\n She slips the buckle (_fibula_) and enjoys her man.\"\n\nThey even subjected to the same operation most of their\nactors:\n\n \"Solvitur his magno com\u0153di fibula. Sunt, qu\u00e6\n Chrysogonum cantare vetent.\"[210]\n\n \"Take from Chrysogonus the power to sing,\n Loose, at vast prices, the comedian's ring.\"\n\n \"Dic mihi, simpliciter, com\u0153dis et cithar\u0153dis,\n Fibula, quod pr\u00e6stat?... carius ut futuunt.\"[211]\n\n\"Tell me, clasp! frankly, of what advantage are you to actresses and\nlute-players? To enhance their favours.\"\n\n \"Menophili, penem tam grandis fibula vestit\n Ut sit com\u0153dis omnibus, una satis\n Hunc ego credideram (nam s\u00e6pe lavamur in unum)\n Sollicitum voci parcere, Flacce, su\u00e6;\n Dum ludit media populo spectante pal\u00e6stra,\n Delapsa est misero, fibula; verpus erat.\"[212]\n\n \"Una si gran fibula copre il membro di Menofila, che sola\n basterebbe a tutti i commenianti. Io O Flacco, avevo creduto\n (imperocche si siamo sovente lavati insi\u00eame) che esso\n sollecito avesse cura delle sua voce; lotta in mezzo la\n palestra a vista del popolo, la fibula casc\u00f3 sventvrato; era\n un' inciso.\"\n\nNor were dancers and gladiators exempted from the same operation,\nespecially the latter, in order that they might preserve all the vigour\nrequired in their horrible and degrading occupation.\n\nThe best description of the _fibula_ is that given by Holiday: \"The\nfibula,\" says he, \"does not strictly signifie a button, but also a\nbuckle or clasp, or such like stay. In this place, the poet expresses by\nit the instrument of servilitie applied to those that were employed to\nsing upon the stage; the Pr\u00e6tor who set forth playes for the delight of\nthe people, buying youths for that purpose, and that they might not, by\nlust, spoil their voice, their overseers closed their shame with a case\nof metal having a sharp spike of the same metal passing by the side of\nit, and sometimes used one of another form; or by a nearer crueltie,\nthey thrust a brazen or silver wire thought that part which the Jew did\nlose in circumcision.\n\n\"The form of the first, and also another fashion, the curious reader may\nhere see (being without any immodestie) as they are represented by\nPignerius, _de servis_, p. 82. But whatsoever the fashion or invention\nwas, the trust was but fond that was committed to them, seeing that the\nart of lust and gold could make them as vain as the Italian engines of\njealousy in this day. Thus, 'O Lentulus,' says the poet, speaking\nfiguratively to some nobleman, 'it is that thou art married; but it is\nsome musician's or fencer's bastard that is born under thy lordly\ncanopie.'\"[213]\n\n[Illustration: PLATE VII., Figs. 1-2, PHALLIC FIBUL\u00c6.]\n\nWinkleman furnishes us with a description of an infibulated\nmusician,[214] it being a small bronze statue representing a naked\ndeformed individual, as thin as a skeleton, and carrying a ring in his\n_enormi mentula_. Martial, who laughs at everything, speaks of these\nsingers sometimes breaking their ring, and says that it becomes\nnecessary to send them to the fibula-makers in order to have the damage\nrepaired:[215]\n\n \"Et cujus refibulavit turgidum, faber, penem,\n Il di cui turgido membro abbia fabro fibbiato.\"\n\nThe practice of infibulation was very common in India, from religious\nmotives. As a proof of their sanctity, many of the Santons, or\nMohammedan saints, as well as other devout persons, bonzes, fakirs, and\nthe like, devoted themselves to perpetual virginity. Whether it was with\nthe intention of placing themselves beyond the possibility of breaking\ntheir vow, or of giving evidence of their constancy, certain it is that\nthey loaded their prepuce with an enormous fibula, or ring; and, in\ntheir warm climate, where nudity does not shock ideas of propriety or\ndecency, devout women not unfrequently repaired to these _soi-disant_\nsaints, to admire and venerate such efforts of virtue and self-denial;\nthey are even reported to have knelt down, and, in that humiliating\nposture, to have kissed the preputial ring, no doubt with the vain hope\nof thereby obtaining indulgences. In some places, these martyrs fasten\ntheir fibula with a lock, the key which they deposit with the magistrate\nof the town or village. But, nature insisting upon her rights, is often\ntoo strong for this self-violence, nor can desire, or the\nnot-to-be-mistaken symptom of it, be opposed, or even prevented, from\nbeing gratified; and since the lock, which obstructs the extremity of\nthe prepuce only, cannot hinder a kind of erection, nor, indeed, of\neffusion of the seminal fluid, it cannot do more than oppose the\nintroduction of the male organ into the receptacle destined for it.\n\nAnother description of fakirs were formerly to be seen in India, and,\nespecially, in its southern peninsula, whose custom it was to traverse\nthe country in a state of nudity, and who had been rendered impotent by\nthe following regimen. The children destined for this penitential state\nare taken away from their parents at the age of six or seven years, and\nmade to eat, daily, a quantity of the young leaves of a tree called\n_Mairkousie_. At first, the dose given them is not larger than a\nfilbert. This regimen must be persisted in until the party reaches the\nage of five-and-twenty years, the dose being increased till, at the\nmaximum, it is as large as a duck's egg. During all this time, the\ndevotee is subjected to no other regimen, except a light purge, once in\nsix months, by means of _Kadoukaie_, or the black mirobolan. Although\nrendered completely impotent by this mode of treatment, so far from\ntheir physical strength and beauty of form being diminished or\ndeteriorated thereby, they are, on the contrary, improved by it; the\nenjoyment of constant good health is likewise almost an invariable\nconsequence.\n\nInfibulation is not confined to the male sex exclusively, for it is\npractised on girls and women in India, Persia, and the East, generally,\nand most commonly consists in joining together the female sexual organ,\nor closing the labia of the vagina by a suture made with waxed thread, a\nsmall aperture being left for the egress of the urine and the menstrua.\n\nLinschet witnessed the operation at Pegu, as did also Schultz, Brown saw\nit performed, at Darfour, on females from eleven to twelve years of\nage.[216] At the time of marriage, a cut of the bistouri dissevers the\nparts which have been closed by the effects of the suture. Sometimes\njealousy contents itself by passing a ring through the parts. Women, as\nwell as girls, are subjected to this disgusting operation, the only\ndifference being that the ring of the latter cannot be removed, while\nthat of the former has a kind of lock, the key of which is in the\nhusband's possession. Pallas informs us that the beautiful nation of the\nTcherkesses, or Circassians carefully preserve the virginity of their\ngirls by means of a leathern girdle, or rather corslet made of skin, and\nsewn immediately upon the naked body. The husband alone has the right of\nsevering this corslet, which he does, on the nuptial night.\n\nWhen the violation of virgin chastity and conjugal fidelity became more\nfrequent, fathers and husbands had recourse, even in Europe, to a\nmechanical contrivance for the purpose of preserving intact the honour\nof the family. This was a kind of padlock, which shut up all access to\nthe seat of voluptuousness. The invention is attributed to one Francesco\ndi Carrera, an imperial judge of Padua, who lived about the close of the\n15th century. The machine itself was called the _Girdle of Chastity_.\nFrancesco's acts of cruelty brought him to the scaffold, where he was\nstrangled in 1405, by a decree of the Senate of Venice. One of the\nprincipal accusations brought against him was the employment of the\n_Girdle of Chastity_, for his mistresses, and it is said by Misson[217]\nthat a box filled with these articles was for a long time preserved in\nthe palace of St. Mark, at Venice. Rabelais speaks of these girdles,\nwhich he calls _Ceintures_ \u00e1 la Bergamasque, \"Nay,\" says he, Pantagruel,\n\"may that Nick in the dark cellar, who hath no white in his eye, carry\nme quiet away with him, if, in that case, whenever I go abroad from the\npalace of my domestic residence, I do not, with as much circumspection\nas they use to ring mares in our country, to keep them from being\nsaillied by stoned horses, clap a Bergamesco lock upon my wife.\"\nBrantome has the following notice of these chastity preservers. \"Des\ntemps du roi Henri il yeut un certain Quinquallier qui apporte une\ndouzaine de certains engins \u00e0 la foire de St. Germain pour brider le cas\ndes femmes. Ces sortes de cadenas estoient en usage \u00e0 Venise d\u00e8s devant\nl'ann\u00e9e 1522, estoient faites de fer et centuroient comme une ceinture,\net venoient \u00e0 se prendre par le bas, et se fermer \u00e0 clef, si subtilement\nfaites, qu'il n'estoit pas possible que la femme en estant brid\u00e9e und\nfois, s'en peust jamais pr\u00e9valoir pour ce doux plaisir, n'ayant que\nquelques petits trous menus pour servir \u00e0 pisser.\"[218]\n\nAn endeavour was made to introduce these Bernasco padlocks into France\nduring the reign of Henry II., and a shop was opened by an Italian at\nthe fair of St. Germain, where they were publicly sold, and in such\nnumbers, that the French gallants, becoming alarmed, threatened to\nthrow the vendor into the Seine, if he did not pack up his merchandise\nand decamp, which he immediately did for fear that the menace might be\nput in execution.\n\nVoltaire describes the Cadenas as originating with Pluto, who, jealous\nof his wife Proserpine, was advised:\n\n Qu'un cadenas, de la structure nouvelle\n Fut le garant de sa fid\u00e9lit\u00e9,\n A la vertu par la force asservie,\n Plus ne sera l'amant favoris\u00e9.\n En un moment, feux, enclumes, fourneaux\n Sont pr\u00e9par\u00e9s aux gouffres infernaux;\n Tisiphone, de ces lieux, serruri\u00e8re,\n Au cadenas met la main, la premi\u00e8re,\n Elle l'ach\u00e8ve et des mains de Pluton\n Proserpine re\u00e7ut ce triste don,\n Or ce secret aux enfers invent\u00e9\n Chez les humains t\u00f4t apr\u00e8s fut port\u00e9\n Et depuis ce temps dans Venise et dans Rome\n Il n'est p\u00e9dant, bourgeois, ou gentilhomme\n Qui pour garder l'honneur de sa maison\n De cadenas n'ait sa provision.[219]\n\n This sage advice, a loud applause\n From all the damned assembly draws;\n And straight, by order of the State,\n Was registered on brass by fate;\n That moment, in the shades below,\n They anvils beat and bellows blow.\n Tisiphoned, the blacksmith's trade\n Well understood; the locks she made:\n Proserpina, from Pluto's hand\n Receiving, wore it by command.\n This lock, which hell could frame alone,\n Soon to the human race was known;\n In Venice, Rome, and all about it,\n No gentlemen or cit's without it.[220]\n\nWe shall close this our third essay with the amusing summary of\nanti-aphrodisiacal remedies, as given by Rabelais.\n\n \"You say,\" said the physician Rondibilis to Panurge, \"that\n you feel in you the pricking stings of sensuality, by which\n you are stirred up to venery. I find in our faculty of\n medicine, and we have founded our opinion therein upon the\n deliberate resolution and final decision of the ancient\n Platonics, that carnal concupiscence is cooled and quelled\n five several ways:--\n\n \"_Firstly_. By the means of wine. I shall easily believe\n that quoth Friar John, for when I am well whittled with the\n juice of the grape, I care for nothing else, so I may sleep.\n When I say, quoth Rondibilis, that wine abateth lust, my\n meaning is, wine immoderately taken; for by intemperance,\n proceeding from the excessive drinking of strong liquor,\n there is brought upon the body of such a swill-down bouser,\n a chillness in the blood, a slackening in the sinews, a\n dissipation of the generative seed, a numbness and\n hebetation of the senses, with a perversive wryness and\n convulsion of the muscles, all which are great lets and\n impediments to the act of generation. Hence it is that\n Bacchus, the god of bibbers, tipplers, and drunkards, is\n most commonly painted beardless and clad in a woman's habit,\n as a person altogether effeminate, or like a libbed eunuch.\n Wine, nevertheless, taken moderately worketh quite contrary\n effects, as is implied by the old proverb, which\n saith,--That Venus taketh cold, when not accompanied by\n Ceres and Bacchus.[221] This opinion is of great antiquity\n as appeareth by the testimony of Diodorus the Sicilian, and\n confirmed by Pausanias, and it is usually held among the\n Lampsacians, that Don Priapus was the son of Bacchus and\n Venus.\n\n \"_Secondly_. The fervency of lust is abated by certain\n drugs, plants herbs and roots, which make the taker cold,\n maleficiated, unfit for, and unable to perform the act of\n generation; as hath often been experimented by the\n water-lily, Heraclea, Agnus-Castus, willow-twigs,\n hemp-stalks, woodbine, honeysuckle, tamarisk, chastetree,\n mandrake, bennet keebugloss, the skin of a hippopotamus, and\n many other such, which, by convenient doses proportioned to\n the peccant humour and constitution of the patient, being\n duly and seasonably received within the body--what by their\n elementary virtues on the one side, and peculiar properties\n on the other, do either benumb, mortify and beclumpse with\n cold, the prolific semence, or scatter and disperse the\n spirits which ought to have gone along with, and conducted\n the sperm to the places destined and appointed for its\n reception,--or lastly, shut up, stop and obstruct the way,\n passages, and conduits, through which the seed should have\n expelled, evacuated, and ejected. We have, nevertheless, of\n those ingredients, which, being of a contrary operation,\n heat the blood, bind the nerves, unite the spirits, quicken\n the senses, strengthen the muscles, and thereby rouse up,\n provoke, excite and enable a man to the vigorous\n accomplishment of the feat of amorous dalliance. I have no\n need of those, quoth Panurge, God be thanked and you, my\n good master. Howsoever, I pray you, take no exception or\n offence at these my words; for what I have said was not out\n of any ill-will I did hear to you, the Lord, he knows.\n\n \"_Thirdly_. The ardour of lechery is very much subdued and\n mated by frequent labour and continual toiling. For by\n painful exercises and laborous working so great a\n dissolution is brought upon the whole body, that the blood\n which runneth alongst the channels of the vein thereof for\n the nourishment and alimentation of each of its members, had\n neither time, leisure, nor power to afford the seminal\n resudation or superfluity of the third concoction, which\n nature most carefully reserves for the conservation of the\n individual, whose preservation she more heedfully regardeth\n than the propagation of the species and the multiplication\n of human kind. Whence it is that Diana is said to be chaste,\n because she is never idle, but always busied about hunting.\n For the same reason was a camp, or leaguer of old\n called--Castrum,[222] as if they would have said--Castum;\n because the soldiers, wrestlers, runners, throwers of the\n bar, and other such like athletic champions, as are usually\n seen in a military circumvallation, do incessantly travail\n and turmoil, and are in a perpetual stir and agitation. To\n this purpose, also, Hippocrates writeth in his book, _De\n Aere, Aqua et Locis_:--That in his time there were people\n in Scythia as impotent as eunuchs in the discharge of a\n venerean exploit; because that, without any cessation, pause\n or respite, they were never from off horseback, or\n otherwise, assiduously employed in some troublesome and\n molesting drudgery.\n\n \"On the other part, in opposition and repugnancy hereto, the\n philosophers say, that idleness is the mother of luxury.\n When it was asked Ovid, why \u00c6gisthus became an adulterer? he\n made no other answer than this, Because he was idle.[223]\n Who were able to rid the world of loitering and idleness\n might easily disappoint Cupid[224] of all his designes,\n aims, engines and devices and so disable and appal him, that\n his bow, quiver, and darts should from thenceforth be a mere\n needless load and burthen to him; for that it could not then\n lie in his power to strike or wound any of either sex with\n all the arms he had. He is not, I believe so expert an\n archer as that he can hit the cranes flying in the air, or\n yet the young stags skipping through the thicket, as the\n Parthians knew well how to do; that is to say, people\n moiling, stirring, and hurrying up and down, restless and\n without repose. He must have those hushed, still, quiet,\n lying at a stay, lither and full of ease, whom he is able to\n pierce with all his arrows. In conformation thereof,\n Theophrastus being asked on a time, What kind of beast or\n thing he judged a toyish, wanton love to be? he made answer,\n That it was a passion of idle and sluggish spirits.[224]\n From which pretty description of tickling-tricks, that of\n Diogenes, the Cynic, was not very discrepant when he defined\n lechery--The occupation of folk destitute of all other\n occupation. For this cause the Sicyonian sculptor\n Canachus,[225] being desirous to give us to understand that\n slowth drowsiness, negligence, and laziness, were the prime\n guardians and governesses of ribaldry, made the statue of\n Venus, not standing, as other stone-cutters had used to do,\n but sitting.\n\n \"_Fourthly_. The tickling pricks of incontinency are blunted\n by an eager study; for from thence proceedeth an incredible\n resolution of the spirits, that oftentimes there do not\n remain so many behind as may suffice to push and thrust\n forwards the generative resudation to the places thereto\n appropriated, and therewithal inflate the cavernous nerve,\n whose office is to ejaculate the moisture for the\n propagation of human progeny. Lest you should think it is\n not so, be pleased but to contemplate a little the form,\n fashion, and carriage of a man exceeding earnestly set upon\n some learned meditation and deeply plunged therein, and you\n shall see how all the arteries of his brains are stretched\n forth, and bent like the string of a cross-bow, the more\n promptly, dexterously and copiously to suppeditate, furnish\n and supply him with store of spirits, sufficient to\n replenish and fill up the ventricles, seats, tunnels,\n mansions, receptacles and cellules of common sense--of the\n imagination apprehension, and fancy--of the ratiocination,\n arguing, and resolution--as likewise, of the memory,\n recordation, and remembrance; and with great alacrity,\n nimbleness, and agility, to run, pass and course from one to\n the other, through those pipes, windings, and conduits,\n which to skilful anatomists are perceivable at the end of\n the wonderful net, where all the arteries close in a\n terminating point; which arteries taking their rise and\n origin from the left capsule of the heart, bring, through\n several circuits, ambages, and anfractuosities, the vital\n spirits, to subtilize and refine them in the \u00e6therial purity\n of animal spirits. Nay, in such a studiously meditating,\n musing person, you may espy so extravagant raptures of one,\n as it were out of himself, that all his natural faculties\n for that time will seem to lie suspended from each their\n proper charge and office, and his exterior senses to be at a\n stand. In a word, you cannot choose than think, that he is\n by an extraordinary ecstasy quite transported out of what he\n was or should be; and that Socrates did not speak improperly\n when he said, That philosophy was nothing else but a\n meditation upon death. This possibly is the reason why\n Democritus[226] deprived himself of the sense of seeing,\n prizing, at a much lower rate, the loss of his sight, than\n the diminution of his contemplation which he had frequently\n found disturbed by the vagrant flying-out strayings of his\n unsettled and roving eyes.[227] Therefore is it that Pallas,\n the goddess of wisdom, tutoress and guardianess of such as\n are diligently studious and painfully industrious, is and\n hath been still accounted a virgin. The Muses upon the same\n consideration are esteemed perpetual maids: and the Graces,\n for the same reason, have been held to continue in a\n sempiternal pudicity.\n\n \"I remember to have read that Cupid,[227] on a time, being\n asked by his mother Venus, why he did not assault and set\n upon the Muses, his answer was, that he found them so fair,\n so neat, so wise, so learned, so modest, so discreet, so\n courteous, so virtuous, and so continually busied and\n employed,--one in the speculation of the stars,--another in\n the supputation of numbers,--the third in the dimension of\n geometrical quantities,--the fourth in the composition of\n heroic poems,--the fifth in the jovial interludes of a comic\n strain,--the sixth in the stately gravity of the tragic\n vein,--the seventh in the melodious disposition of musical\n airs,--the eighth in the completest manner of writing\n histories and books on all sorts of subjects, and--the ninth\n in the mysteries, secrets, and curiosities of all sciences,\n faculties, disciplines and arts whatsoever, whether liberal\n or mechanic,--that approaching near unto them he unbent his\n bow, shut his quiver, and extinguished his torch, through\n mere shame and fear that by mischance he might do them any\n hurt or prejudice. Which done, he thereafter put off the\n fillet wherewith his eyes were bound, to look them in the\n face, and to hear their melody and poetic odes. There took\n he the greatest pleasure in the world, that many times he\n was transported with their beauty and pretty behaviour, and\n charmed asleep by their harmony, so far was he from\n assaulting them or interrupting their studies. Under this\n article may be comprised what Hippocrates wrote in the\n afore-cited treatise concerning the Scythians, as also that\n in a book of his intituled, Of Breeding and Production,\n where he hath affirmed all such men to be unfit for\n generation as have their parotid arteries cut--whose\n situation is behind the ears--for the reason given already,\n when I was speaking of the resolution of the spirits, and of\n that spiritual blood, whereof the arteries are the sole and\n proper receptacles; and that likewise he doth maintain a\n large portion of the parastatic liquor to issue and descend\n from the brains and backbone.\n\n \"_Fifthly_. By the too frequent reiteration of the act of\n venery. There did I wait for you, quoth Panurge, and shall\n willingly apply it to myself, whilst any one that pleaseth\n may, for me, make use of any of the four preceding. That is\n the very same thing, quoth Friar John, which Father\n Scyllion,[228] Prior of St. Victor, at Marseilles, calleth\n maceration and taming of the flesh. I am of the same\n opinion, and so was the hermit of Saint Radegonde, a little\n above Chinon; for, quoth he, the hermits of Theba\u00efde can no\n way more aptly or expediently macerate and bring down the\n pride of their bodies, daunt and mortify their lecherous\n sensuality, or depress and overcome the stubbornness and\n rebellion of the flesh, than by dufling and fanfreluching\n five and twenty or thirty times a day.\"\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES\n\n\n [1] For a representation of the Egyptian \"Phallus\" see Plate\n I., figures 1, 2, and 3. These are taken from the\n \"_Recueil d'Antiquit\u00e9s Egyptiennes_\" by the Comte De\n Caylus, who, speaking of the first of them, observes:\n \"Cette figure repr\u00e9sente le plus terrible Phallus qu'on\n ait v\u00fb, proportion gard\u00e9e, sur aucun ouvrage. On\n n'ignore point la v\u00e9n\u00e9ration que les Egyptiens avaient\n pour cet embl\u00eame, il est vrai; mais je doute que cette\n nation sage et peu outr\u00e9e dans sa conduite e\u00fbt consacr\u00e9\n dans les premiers si\u00e9cles, c'est a dire, avant le r\u00e9gne\n des Ptolem\u00e9es, une pareille figure.\"\n\n [2] Historia de los Incas. Cap. VI.\n\n [3] In the church of St. Peter's at Rome, is kept, _en\n secret_, a large stone emblem of the creative power, of\n a very peculiar shape, on which are engraved [Greek:\n Zeus S\u00f4t\u00ear]. Only persons who have great interest can\n get a sight of it. Is it from this stone having some\n peculiar virtue that those _preux chevaliers_, the\n cardinals, keep it so closely? Perhaps they choose to\n monopolize the use of it? I never saw it, but I know\n that it was at St Peter's.--HIGGINS.\n\n [4] See Plate II., figure 1. This figure of the Lingham\n presents a kind of Trinity, the vase represents Vishnu,\n from the middle of which rises a column rounded at the\n top representing Siva, and the whole rests upon a\n pedestal typifying Brahma. From the _Voyage aux Indes\n Orientales et \u00e0 la Chine_, par M. Sonnerat, depuis 1774\n jusqu'en 1781. Tom. I., p. 179.\n\n [5] _Voyage aux Indes et \u00e0 la Chine_, par Sonnerat, depuis\n 1774 jusqu'en 1781; Tom. I. liv. 2.\n\n [6] See plate III., figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.\n\n [7] Henry O'Brien, Round Towers of Ireland. London, 1834.\n Chapter viii.\n\n [8] See Plate IV., figure 1.\n\n [9] Samuel II., chap. vi., v. 20, 21, 22, 23.\n\n [10] The indispensable and inseparable appendages to the\n male organ have thus been eulogized by Giov. Francesco\n Lazzarelli in his poem entitled, La Cicceide, p. 120.\n\n LE PREROGATIVI DE'TESTICOLI.\n\n Gran sostegni dei mondo, almi C ......\n Del celeste Fattor, opre ingegnose;\n Da caricare i piccoli cannoni,\n Ond' armata va l'uom, Palle focose:\n Robusti, anchor\u00e8 teneri Palloni,\n Con cui guiocan tra lor, mariti e spose;\n Del corpo uman spermatici Embrioni;\n De' venerei piacer fonti amorose;\n Magazzini vitali, ove Natura\n L'uman seme riposto, a' figli suoi\n D' assicurar la succession procura! etc.\n\n [11] Genesis, chap. xxiv. v. 2, 3.\n\n [12] Genesis, chap. xlvii. v. 29.\n\n [13] M\u00e9moires sur l'Egypte, publi\u00e9s pendant les Campagne de\n _Bonaparte_, Partie, 2, p. 193.\n\n [14] The Latin text of the law is as follows:--\"Si mulier\n stuprata lege cum illo agere velit, membro virili\n _sinistra prehenso et dextra reliquos sanctorum\n imposita, juret, super illas quod is per vim se, isto\n membro, vitiaverit_.\"--Voyage dans le D\u00e9partement du\n Finisterre, Tom. iii., p. 233.\n\n [15] Hunc locum tibi dedico consacroque, Priape,\n Qu\u00e6 domus tua, Lampsaei est, quaque silva, Priape.\n Nam te pr\u00e6cipue in suis urbibus colit, ora\n Hellespontia, c\u00e6teris ostreosior oris.--Catullus, Carm. xviii.\n\n [16] See Plate II., figure 2.\n\n [17] From possessing such an article of VIRTU, his Eminence\n must surely have been of the opinion of Cardinal\n Bembo--_that there is no sin below the navel_.\n\n [18] Falce minax et parte tui majore, Priape,\n Ad fontem qu\u00e6so, dic mihi, qua sit iter.--Priapeia\n Carm.\n\n [19] See note [21], p. 11.\n\n [20] See S. Augustine, Civ. Dei., lib. 6, cap. 9, and\n Lactantius _De falsa religione_. lib. I.\n\n [21] See Plate I., figure 4. This phallus was found at\n Pompeii over a baker's door.\n\n [22] Thus his statue was placed in orchards as a scare-crow\n to drive away superstitious thieves, as well as\n children and birds.\n\n Pomarii tutela, diligens _rubro_\n Priape, furibus minare mutino.--Priapeia Carm. 73.\n\n [23] Ind. Antiq. ii., p, 361.\n\n [24] Ind. Antiq., vol. I., p. 247.\n\n [25] Voyage dans la Chine par Avril, Liv. iii., p. 194.\n\n [26] Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 269.\n\n [27] Worship of Priapus.\n\n [28] _Ibid._, p 48.\n\n [29] For some ingenious and learned observations on the Tau\n or Crux Ansata see Classical Journal, No. 39, p. 182.\n\n [30] Chap. ix., v. 3. \"And the Lord said unto him: Go\n through the midst of the city, through the midst of\n Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the forehead of the men\n that sigh and cry for the abominations that be done in\n the midst thereof.\"\n\n [31] For a description of some of the above-mentioned\n Crosses, see Plate V., also \"_Voyage dans la basse et\n la haute-Egypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte_,\n 1802 et 1829,\" par Denon--Planches 48, 78.\n\n [32] This city was the birth place of the deity Priapus,\n whose orgies were there constantly celebrated.\n Alexander the Great, in his Persian expedition,\n resolved to destroy Lampsacus on account of its many\n vices, or rather from a jealousy of its adherence to\n Persia; but it was saved by the artifice of the\n philosopher Anaxamenes, who, having heard that the king\n had sworn to refuse whatever he should ask him, begged\n him to destroy the city.\n\n [33] Journal d'Henri III. par l'Etoile. Tom. 5.\n\n [34] Historie Religieuse du Calendrier, p. 420.\n\n [35] Johannis Goropii Becani, Origines Antwerpian\u00e6, 1569,\n lib. i., p.p. 26 and 101.\n\n [36] The foreskins, still extant, of the Saviour, are\n reckoned to be twelve in number. One was in the\n possession of the monks of Coulombs; another at the\n Abbey of Charroux; a third at Hildesheim, in Germany; a\n fourth at Rome, in the Church of St. Jean-de-Latran; a\n fifth at Antwerp; a sixth at Puy-en-Velay, in the\n Church of Notre Dame, &c., &c. So much for relics!\n\n [37] Dulaure, Singularit\u00e9s Historiques de l'Historie de\n Paris, p. 77. Paris, 1825.\n\n [38] Letter of Sir W. Hamilton prefixed to Payne Knight's\n \"Worship of Priapus.\"\n\n For a representation of the ancient, _Ex voto_, in\n silver, the size of the original see Plate VI., figure\n 1. It is copied from an additional plate inserted by M.\n Panizzi, late librarian of the British Museum, in the\n fly-leaf of Payne Knight's \"_Worship of Phallus_.\"\n\n [39] To these the canon law adds sorcery, ligature or\n point-tying.\n\n [40] Zachais, Qu\u00e6st. medico. leg. lib. II., tit. I, qu\u00e6st.\n I.\n\n [41] See _Lectures on Comparative Anatomy_ by Sir Everard\n Home, Bart. Vol. III., p. 166. London 1823.\n\n [42] Lib. I., Epigram. 91.\n\n [43] Juvenal Sat. I., vv. 204, 105.\n\n [44] Orlando Furioso, Can. I, stanz. 49, 60.\n\n [45] Rapport, Tom. I., p. 335.\n\n [46] Sir Charles Morgan, Philos. of Morals, p. 25.\n\n [47] Nosographie philosophique.\n\n [48] Medical Essays published by a society in Edinburgh,\n vol. I., p. 270. Case reported by W. Cockburn, M.D.\n\n [49] Rapport, tome II., p. 422.\n\n [50] Essays, Book I., chap. xx. Cotton's translation.\n\n [51] Hippocrates de Aer: aqua et loco, 210.\n\n [52] Treatise on the Venereal Disease.\n\n [53] Comment. de Aer: aqua et loco, 210.\n\n [54] Voltaire, Pucelle d'Orl\u00e9ans, Chant. xii.\n\n [55] Bigarrures du Seigneur des Accords.\n\n [56] Herodotus Enterpe clxxxii.\n\n [57] De Legibus, lib. ii.\n\n [58] Ecologa viii.\n\n [59] Amor., lib. iii., Eleg. 6.\n\n [60] De Asino Aureo, lib. ii., v. 3.\n\n [61] Tacitus Annal., lib. iv., 22.\n\n [62] Lib. v., Sentent, tit. 23.\n\n [63] De rebus gestis Francorum, lib. 4. cap. 94.\n\n [64] Histoire des Fran\u00e7ais.\n\n [65] Nominated to the Bishopric of Evreux by Henry IV. of\n France. His favourite authors were Rabelais and\n Montaigne.\n\n [66] Demonologie, 1603, Book I., Chap. III., p. 12.\n\n [67] \"Hercules, puer, L. Virgines, una nocte, gravidus\n reddit.\"--C\u0153lius, lib. 14, cap. 8.\n\n [68] Trait\u00e9 premier de la dissolution de Mariage pour\n l'impuissance et froideur de l'homme, ou de la Femme,\n par Antoine Hotman, p. 63.\n\n [69] Tableau de l'Amour consid\u00e9r\u00e9 dans l'\u00e9tat du Mariage,\n par II., chap. 2, art. 3.\n\n [70] Art. Portugal. rem. F.\n\n [71] Boileau Despr\u00e9aux, Satires, Satire VIII.\n\n [72] Willick's Lectures on Diet and Regimen, p. 538, et seq.\n\n [73] From [Greek: mandra], relating to cattle, and [Greek:\n agaron], baneful, injurious.\n\n [74] Genesis, Chap. xxx., v. 14, 15, 16, 17. The last verse must\n be considered as decisive of the efficacy of the mandrake.\n\n [75] Solomon's Song, chap. vii. v. 13.\n\n [76] See the word _Duda\u00efm_, in Dr. Kitto's Cyclop\u00e6dia\n of Biblical Literature. The learned doctor has given a\n sketch of the plant Mandragora, a copy of which the\n reader will find in plate VI.\n\n [77] Onkelos was a celebrated rabbin contemporary with St.\n Paul, and to whom the Targum, that is, a translation or\n paraphrase of the Holy Scriptures, is attributed.\n\n [78] Lib. IV., cap. 76.\n\n [79] Quoted by Oct. Celsius in his \"_Hierobotanicon_,\" Part\n I., par. 5. art. _Dudaim_, from Epiphan: Physiolog. c. 4.\n\n [80] Pliny's \"Natural History,\" Vol. IV., p. 397 (Bohn's\n Classical Library).\n\n [81] Columella _De hortorum Cultu._, v. 19, 20.\n\n [82] See a manuscript Interrogatory still preserved in the\n \"Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale,\" Fonds de Baluze, Rouleau 5.\n\n [83] See \"_De l'imposture des Diables_,\" par Jacques Gr\u00e9vin,\n Tom. IV., p. 359.\n\n [84] From Weir \"De Mag: demonia:\" Cours Complet\n d'agriculture par l'Abb\u00e9 Rosier, Tom. VI., p. 401.\n\n [85] R\u00e9collections des choses merveilleuses Advenues en\n notre temps par George Chastelain, Edition de\n Coustelier, p. 150.\n\n [86] Lettres d'Amabed, Vol. XXXIV., p. 261. Edition Beuchot,\n Paris.\n\n [87] Mandragola, Atto II. Scena 6. See also La Fontaine's\n tale of \"La Mandragore,\" founded upon the above comedy.\n\n [88] See Warburton on Shakespear's Othello, Act I.,\n Scene 8.\n\n \"_By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks._\"\n\n [89] See Speed's Historie of Great Britaine. Richard III.\n Book II., page 913 folio edition, 1632.\n\n [90] Exercitatio de Rachelis Deliciis, 420, 1678.\n\n [91] Atlantica illustrata, 1733.\n\n [92] Hierobotanicon, 1745.\n\n [93] \"Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem at Easter, A.D.,\n 1697.\"\n\n [94] _Orchis_ is a Greek word signifying _testicle_, a name\n given by the ancients to this plant on account of the\n supposed resemblance of its root to that organ.\n\n [95] Eustathii Commentarii ad Homerum, Vol. I., p. 325,\n 403-9. Editio Lipsi\u00e6, 1827.\n\n [96] Juliani Calixen\u00e6 Epistola.\n\n [97] \"Amatorio poculo furorem versus, quum aliquot libros\n per intervalla conscripserat.\"\n\n [98] Epist. dissuas: ad Rufinum C. 22. Tom XII. p.\n 245, ad Varon.\n\n [99] Remarks on the life and poems of Lucretius, p. vi.\n (Bohn's Classical Library).\n\n [100] Probably to Anticyra, a Greek town situated at the\n mouth of the river Sperchius, and reputed to produce\n the genuine hellebore, recommended by the ancient\n physicians as a cure for insanity, whence the well\n known adage, \"Naviget Anticyram.\"\n\n [101] Sueton. Calig. 50.\n\n [102] Juvenal. Sat. vi. v. 614.\n\n [103] Hor. Epod Lib. Carm. V. 1703. See also the admirable\n notes of Dacier and Sanadon upon the above ode.\n\n [104] Disquisitionum Magicarum, Lib. III. Qu\u00e6stio III. De\n Amatorio Malaficio, page 7.\n\n [105] Cinq livres de l'imposture et tromperie des diables.\n Lib. II., p. 216, 1569.\n\n [106] De Margarum Daemonomania. Lib. I., Cap. III., p.\n 27.\n\n [107] \u00c6neid, Lib. IV., v. 13, 14, 15, and 16.\n\n [108] Pausanias, Gr\u00e6ci\u00e6 Descriptio, Lib. V., c. 27.\n\n [109] In his work \"De valetudine tuend\u00e2.\"\n\n [110] Trait\u00e9 universel des drogues simples.\n\n [111] The Holy Guide by John Heyden, Gent., [Greek:\n Philonomos] a servant of God and a Secretary of\n Nature, Lib. v. p. 61.\n\n [112] Ibid., p. 62.\n\n [113] Anatomy of Melancholy.\n\n [114] Essays, Vol. II., p. 262-3. Translated by Cotton.\n London, 1743.\n\n [115] \"Cujus rei istud est argumentum, quod ubi rem veneream\n exercemus, tantillo emisse, imbecilles evadimus.\"--_De\n Genitura._\n\n [116] Tome 52, p. 286, et seq.\n\n [117] Juvenal, Sat. 6, v. 302. \"Ad venerem,\" says Lubinus in\n a note on this passage, \"miris modis instigant\n (_i.e._, ostre\u00e6), inde turpissim\u00e6 ill\u00e6 besti\u00e6 (femin\u00e6)\n ostrea comedebant, _ut ad Venerem promptiores\n essent_.\"\n\n [118] De la g\u00e9n\u00e9ration de l'homme, p. 272.\n\n [119] Trait\u00e9 des dispenses et de Car\u00eame, Paris, 1709, en\n 12mo, r\u00e9imprim\u00e9 trois fois.\n\n [120] Names given to the female slaves or concubines in the\n harem of the Sultan.\n\n [121] A large province of the Deccan, said to have been\n famous, in ancient times, for its diamond mines.\n\n [122] That Coryph\u00e6us of voluptuaries, George IV., so highly\n appreciated this quality in truffles, that his\n Ministers at the courts of Turin, Naples, Florence,\n &c., were specially instructed to forward by a state\n messenger to the Royal Kitchen any of those fungi that\n might be found superior in size, delicacy or flavour.\n\n [123] Physiologie du Gout, par Brillat Savarin, Paris, 1859.\n\n [124] Martial, Epigram, lib. xiii. epig. 34.\n\n [125] Ducange, Glossaire.\n\n [126] J. H. Meibomius de flagrorum usu in Re medica et\n Venerea, Paris, 1792, p. 125.\n\n [127] See Macaron\u00e9ana, par M. Octave Delepierre, Paris,\n 1852, p. 3.\n\n [128] Thevet, Portraits des Vies des Hommes Illustres, Vol.\n I., p. 13, fol. edit., Paris, 1584.\n\n [129] Hume's Hist. of England, Vol. I., p. 348.\n\n [130] Dissertatio Inauguralis de Ambra, \u00a7 iv. p. 36.\n\n [131] Medicamentum quod non solum potenter stimulat, sed vel\n eff\u0153tum senem, pro brevi tempore, ad\n juventutem iterum restituit. _Ibid._ \u00a7 viii., p. 44.\n\n [132] N\u00e9e dans une condition obscure, vou\u00e9e au libertinage\n d\u00e9s sa plus tendre jeunesse, autant par go\u00fbt que par\n \u00e9tat, Made. Du Barry ne put offrir \u00e0 son auguste\n amant, malgr\u00e9 la fleur de la jeunesse et les brillants\n appas dont elle \u00e9toit encore pourvue, que les restes\n de la plus vile canaille, de la prostitution.\" Vie\n priv\u00e9e des ma\u00eetresses de Louis XV., p. 153.--\"You are\n no doubt curious to hear an opinion of Madame Du\n Barri's beauty from the lips of one who has seen her\n both in her days of prosperity and after her downfall.\n She was a person of small, almost diminutive stature,\n extremely frail and delicate in feature, which saved\n her from being vulgar; but even from the first, she\n always wore that peculiarly _fane_ look which she owed\n to a youth of dissipation, a maturity of unbounded\n indulgence. At the period of my visit she was about\n thirty-six years of age, but, from her child-like form\n and delicacy of countenance, appeared much younger,\n and her _gambades_ and unrestrained gestures of\n supreme delight on having, as she said, _quelqu'un \u00e0\n qui parler_, did not seem displaced. Although alone,\n and evidently not in expectation of visitors, her\n toilet was brilliant and _recherch\u00e9_, the result of\n the necessity of killing time.\"--\"Talleyrand Papers.\"\n\n [133] Espion de la Cour.\n\n [134] Gazetier Cuirass\u00e9, ou Anecdotes Scandaleuses de la\n Cour de France.\n\n [135] In his \"_Praxis Medica Admiranda_,\" wherein he also\n gives the formula of an electuary _ad excitandum\n tentiginem nulli secundum_, p, 295, Observ. XCI., as\n well as a recipe for pills ad _Coit\u00fbs ignaviam_,\n CXIII., p. 297.\n\n [136] Encyclop\u0153dia Parthensis, Article Cachunde.\n\n [137] See his Premier Trait\u00e9 de l'homme et de son\n essentielle anatomie, avec les \u00e9l\u00e9ments et ce qui est\n en eux, de ses maladies, m\u00e9dicine et absolus rem\u00e8des,\n etc., Paris, 1588.\n\n [138] Cent. 2.\n\n [139] See Celius, lib. xiv., cap. 3.\n\n [140] Histoire de Ferdinand et Isabelle, Tom. II., 326.\n Paris, 1766.\n\n [141] Biographie Universelle, Art. Wallenstein.\n\n [142] Detested by the Parisians, Dubois was the object of\n innumerable caricatures, of which the most _sanglante_\n was one representing him \"\u00e0 genoux aux pieds d'une\n fille de joie qui prenait de ce sale \u00e9coulement qui\n afflige les femmes, tous les mois, pour lui en rougir\n sa calotte et le faire Cardinal.\" See Erotika Biblion.\n Paris, 1792, p. 52.\n\n [143] M\u00e9moires du Cardinal Dubois, vol. I., p. 3.\n\n [144] \u00c6lius Tetrabilis, I., Disc. Chap. 32 and 33.\n\n [145] Browne's Travels in Africa, etc., p. 343.\n\n [146] La g\u00e9n\u00e9ration de l'homme, ou tableau de l'amour\n conjugal. Tom. 1., p. 276.\n\n [147] Ibid., p. 232.\n\n [148] Venette, G\u00e9n\u00e9ration de l'homme, Tom. I., p. 279.\n\n [149] De cultu hortorum, v. 108.\n\n [150] Moretum, v. 85.\n\n [151] Mag. Nat., Lib. vii.\n\n [152] Mala Bacchica tanta olim in amoribus pr\u00e6valerunt, ut\n coron\u00e6 ex illis statu\u00e6 Bacchi ponerentur.\n\n [153] Surag radis ad coitum summe facit: _si quis comedat\n aut infusionem bibat, membrum subite erigitur_.\n Leo Afric., Lib, IX., cap. ult., p. 302.\n\n [154] Gomez (Ferdinand) of Ciudad Real, a celebrated\n physician, born 1388, died 1457.\n\n [155] Mag. Nat. Lib. VII., c. 16.\n\n [156] Tractado de las drogas y medicinas de las Indias\n Orientales chap. LXI., p. 360, Burgos, 1578.\n\n [157] Travels in Africa, &c., p. 341.\n\n [158] Lignac. A physical view of man and woman in a state of\n marriage. Vol. I., p. 190.\n\n [159] Turc\u00e6 ad Levenzinum contra Comitem Ludovicum Souches\n pugnantes, opio exaltati turpiter c\u00e6si, et octo mille\n numero occisi, _mentulas rigidas_ tulere. Christen.\n Opium Hist.\n\n [160] It was, perhaps, the knowledge of this fact that\n suggested to La Fontaine the lines:--\n\n \"Un muletier \u00e0 ce jeu\n Vaut trois rois.\"\n\n \"To play at which game, I'm sure it is clear,\n Three kings are no match for one muleteer.\"\n\n [161] Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain. Tom. II., p. 123.\n\n [162] Cabanis, Rapport, &c., Tom. II., p. 89.\n\n [163] Essais philosophiques sur les m\u0153urs de divers\n animaux \u00e9trangers.\n\n [164] \"The care on thee depending\n Hath fed upon the body of my father,\n Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold;\n Other less fine in carat is more precious,\n Preserving life in _medicine potable_.\"\n\n _Henry IV._, sec. part, act iv. sc. v.\n\n [165] Lettres sur Fran\u00e7ois Rabelais. Let. II.\n\n [166] De P\u0153nitenti\u00e2 Decretorum, lib. xix.\n\n [167] See Millengen's \"Curiosities of Medical Experience,\"\n art. Flagellation Vol. II., p. 47 et seq.\n\n [168] Medic., Lib. III., art. 12.\n\n [169] See Richter, Opuscula medica Col. I., p. 273, \"Qui\n novit ex stimulantium fonte, cardiaca, _aphrodisiaca_,\n diaphoretica, diuretica aliaque non infirmi ordinis\n medicamenta peti, perspicit plenius quam larga\n _verberibus_ bene merendi sit, uti pr\u00e6sertim in\n torpore nervorum, paralysi, _impotentia ad Venerem_ et\n naturalium excretionum eluxit.\"\n\n [170] Author of the work entitled, \"_De flagrorum usu in re\n venerea_,\" Lug. Bat., 1639, with the motto:\n\n \"Delicias pariunt Veneri crudelia flagra,\n Dum nocet, illa juvat, dum juvat, ecce nocet.\n\n \"Lo! cruel stripes the sweets of love ensure,\n And painful pleasures pleasing pains procure.\"\n\n [171] Millingen, \"Curiosities of Medical Experience.\" Vol.\n II., p. 52.\n\n [172] To this personage may justly be applied the French\n epitaph upon one who died under similar circumstances:\n\n \"Je suis mort de l'amour enterpris\n Entre les jambes d'une dame,\n Bien heureux d'avoir rendu l'\u00e2me,\n Au m\u00eame lieu o\u00f9 je l'ai pris.\"\n\n [173] See his work, _contra Astrologos_, Lib. III., cap. 27.\n\n [174] Petri Ab\u0153lardi Abbatis Rugensis et Heloiss\u00e6\n Abbatiss\u00e6 Paracletensis Epistol\u00e6. Epist. I., p. 10.\n\n [175] Ibid., Epist. III., p. 81.\n\n [176] See Meibomius, p. 43, note a. Edit. Paris, 1792, 12mo.\n\n [177] Name given to persons having only one testicle.\n\n [178] \u0152uvres, Tom. I, p. 283. Ed. 1714.\n\n [179] Travels in Siberia in 1661, Tom. I., p. 319.\n\n [180] Dictionnaire des Sciences M\u00e9dicales. Art. Pollution.\n\n [181] Confessions, Tom. I.\n\n [182] De Nasturcio mira refert Dioscoridas I., 2, c. 185.\n\n [183] Satyricon, Caput xxxviii.\n\n [184] Pract. part. ii. cap. de passioni membr\u00e9-g\u00e9nital.\n\n [185] Ducatiana ii., b. 505.\n\n [186] Curiosities of Medical Experience, vol. II., p. 55.\n\n [187] Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 3, memb. 3, subj. 5.\n\n [188] Pornodidascalus seu Colloquium Muliebre Petri Aretini\n _ingeniossimi et fer\u00e8 incomparabilis virtutum et\n vitiorum demonstratoris_: De Astu nefario,\n horrendisque dolis, quibus impudic\u00e6 mulieres juventuti\n incaut\u00e6 insidiantur.--Francofurti. Anno 1623.\n\n [189] Verum omni ist\u00e2 scienc\u00e2 (magica) (says Lucretia)\n nunquam potui movere cor hominis sol\u00e2 vero saliv\u00e2 mea\n (id est ampleux et basiis) inungens tam furios\u00e8 furere\n tam bestialiter obstupefieri plurimos coegi ut instar\n idoil me Amoresque meos adorarint.--p. 47-8.\n\n [190] Othello, Act iii. Sc. 10.\n\n [191] Sir Thos. Browne's Works, Vol. III., p. 89. Bohn's\n Edit.\n\n [192] Origen, one of the Fathers of the Church, born in A.D.\n 185, is a melancholy proof how far the reason may be\n perverted by erroneous views in religious matters; for\n according to Fulgos, \"ut corpus ab omni venerea labe\n mundum servaret, omnique suspicione careret, sectis\n genitalibus membris, eunuchum se fecit.\" He, however,\n lived long enough to condemn his error. See his 15th\n sermon upon St. Matthew, cap. 19, v. 12; his work\n against Celsus, lib. 7; and his 7th Treatise upon the\n 18th and 19th Chapters of St. Matthew.\n\n [193] Baldassar Tim\u0153us Cas. med. Lib. XIX., Salacitas\n nitro curata.\n\n [194] Historie Mundi, Lib. XXVI., c. 7.\n\n [195] The medical school of Salerno (_latine_ Salernum) was\n founded by Robert Guiscard at the end of the 11th\n century; and about the year 1100 a collection of\n medical aphorisms, was composed in Latin verse by a\n certain John of Milan, and published under the title\n of _Medicina Salertina_. Of this poem, which\n originally consisted of 1239 verses, only 373, or\n about a third, are extant. These were published at\n Paris in 1625 by R\u00e9n\u00e9 Moreau; in 1653 it was\n travestied by L. Martin; paraphrased by Bruzen de la\n Martini\u00e8re in 1743, and by Dr. Levacher de la Feuverie\n in 1782.\n\n [196] De tuto cantharidum in medicin\u00e2 usu interno.\n\n [197] Arnaud de Villeneuve was one of the luminaries of the\n 13th century, being distinguished for his profound\n knowledge of medicine, chemistry, astrology, and\n theology. He discovered the sulphuric, muriatic and\n nitric acids, and was the first to compose alcohol and\n the essence of terebinth or turpentine.\n\n [198] Trait\u00e9 des dispenses du car\u00eame.\n\n [199] \"Any man,\" said Abernethy, the celebrated and\n eccentric surgeon, \"that drinks coffee and soda water,\n and smokes cigars, may lie with my wife.\"\n\n [200] De Aer: Aqu\u0101 et Locis. Liber, caput x.\n\n [201] Comment. in Boerh. Aphor. sec. 1063, Vol. III.\n\n [202] _De Machinis_, C. IV.\n\n [203] No. 206.\n\n [204] _Exercitatio de aci\u00e1_, Cap. 4, _et seq._\n\n [205] Odyssey VIII. line 477.\n\n [206] Introd. to Hesiod, cap. VI. p. 14. Edit. Plautin,\n 1603, in voce [Greek: aoidos].\n\n [207] Annals of Gallantry.\n\n [208] Celsus has described the operation, in detail.\n Medicina, lib. VII. c. 25.\n\n [209] Juvenal, Sat. VI. v. 379-80.\n\n [210] Ibid., v. 73-74.\n\n [211] Martialis, lib. XIV. Ep. 215.\n\n [212] Martialis, lib. VII. Ep. 81.\n\n [213] Holiday's Juvenal, Sat. VI., illustr. 11, note\n \"_Unbutton a Comedian_.\" For a copy see plate VII.,\n fig. 1. and 2.\n\n [214] Monumenti Antichi inediti. Rome, 1767, fol., p. IV. c.\n 8, p. 247, fig. 188.\n\n [215] Martial, Lib. IX. Epig. 28, v. 12.\n\n [216] Travels in Africa and Egypt.\n\n [217] \"There (in the arsenal) are also various whimsical\n bolts and locks with which he (Carrera) used to keep\n his concubines confined.\" Travels in Italy. See _The\n World_, vol. 18, p. 154.\n\n [218] Brantome, Dames Galantes, tom. iii., p. 138.\n\n [219] Le Cadenas. This poem was composed by the author when\n he was only eighteen years of age, and it was\n occasioned by a lady who was in the circumstances here\n spoken of.\n\n [220] Dr Smollett's translation, Vol. XXXII.\n\n [221] Sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus.\n\n [222] \"_Castrum quasi Castum, Castra_,\" says Isidorus in his\n _Etymologies_, Lib. IX., \"sunt ubi miles steterit:\n dicta autem, castra, quasi casta, eo quod ibi\n castraretur libido.\" _A castle_ from _castrating of\n lust_.\n\n [223] Qu\u00e6ritur \u00c6gystus quare sit factus adulter\n In promptu causa est: desidiosus.--De Remed. Amoris.\n\n [224] \"Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinis artes.\"\n\n [225] See Pausanias's \"Corinthians.\"\n\n [226] Vide Cicero, lib. V., Tusc. Questions and Plutarch's\n Treatise of Curiosity. It must, however, be observed,\n that this story is wholly incredible, inasmuch as the\n same writers affirm that Democritus employed his\n leisure in writing books and in dissecting the bodies\n of animals, neither of which could very well be\n effected without the eyes.\n\n [227] In Lucian, in the Dialogue entitled--\"Venus and\n Cupid.\"\n\n [228] The story itself is the same as that related by Poggio\n (Bracciolini) of a hermit of Pisa. \"Eremita,\" says he,\n \"qui Pisis morabatur, tempore Petri Gambacurt\u00e6,\n meretricem noctu in suam ce lulan deduxit, vigesiesque\n ea nocte mulierem cognovit; semper cum moveret clunes,\n ut crimen fugeret luxuri\u00e6 vulgaribus verbis dicens:\n 'domati, carne cattizella;' hoc est, doma te,\n miserrima caro!\"\n\nTHE END.","title":"Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":46307}